The Marked Stag
I remember us
Your voice husked with passion
Your eyes incredulously bright, wet, and near
My will like crumbling dust
It was so sudden and unexpected, your will
To yield from the unimplored edge of fear
And I quivering in the net of your affection
O we quivered in the darkness and was still.
You spoke of love with the tongue of an angel
Penning me with stories that unwrapped your hurt
To comfort you then I would have entered hell
And break the spell of heaven and of earth.
I remember us
Daylight skipping my heart like a stag through green
Of day. I swaddled me in love again
And swallowed me in trust
No blood scent tell I was just another game
The stag is marked by callous whim to die
Over the long years where we ran spilling joy
Not knowing how the hunter sighted it for pain
Nor that love was a skin you would shed, still serene
Like the night when quivering you came.
I heard you on the phone today, and did not cry
To your say, "did I tell you I am wed?"
My heart dessicated, for tears too dry
Said "congratulations," and went to bed.
So it was you left a trail
Betraying me? You whose odor indented the grass
And you did not even shout, "the Philistines are upon you,"
You left me where the knife prevailed
Betrayal of what you said you stood for then
Betrayal of the dream I told no Potipher's wife before
The blood burn black upon the grass is upon you
And still I would redeem at all cost
A Samson blind and stumbling in the scorn of men.
When the moon comes up and he takes your hand
Will he look and see my shadow in your mind
Or feel you quivering like a wind swirled sand
Betrayal begins where the budding heart blooms blind.
|