He
wears his nakedness
as a disguise –
Charred stumps of
feather, blackened
blistered skin
Taut on the rack
of fractured bone.
Bird-thin,
Light as a bird
but chained, he
cannot rise.
A
gaunt hag, hunched
over her empty heart,
She flaunts her
freedom, taunts
him with his chains
And with the ruined
beauty he disdains.
A weary unforgiveness
keeps them apart.
Two
silent dancers in
a cone of light
Stand outside time,
unmoving, head to
head.
The air is thick
with what they’ve
left unsaid.
Darkness has comprehended
them tonight.
Stripped
of everything but
the will to live
Each dies for what
the other cannot
give. |