Love Poem: Love, Torn

Love, Torn

monogamy ...
               shredded by actuality
          there, on the cold cotton sheets
      lay the discarded remnants of my pride
   torn into shameful shards and ragged strips of infidelity
 and hidden deep within the shadow of a broken heart
no draft of recompense would be worthy barter
               nor apt or artful atonement ... not anymore
              I'd spied the cur's face, you see
            the blackguard's gaze had found me upon escape
         and returned it, did I, with exacting ire
     alas, had it the force of a bullet, (oh, haste!)
naught but ruin would have stained those moments
               those far-too-brief-but-endless caught-in-the-act moments
          yet such looks are only messages, not weapons
      besides, it was she with the bloody apron
   she who held the blade, firm ... steady
 who drew its rusty edge across my heart, and thrust ...
he ... merely twisted it.






~ 1st Place ~  in the "One In Four" Poetry Contest, Joseph May, Judge & Sponsor.

(Line chosen - "Within the shadow of a broken heart")