Pardon

The roses have drunk their fill of sentiment
Blush cut
Deeply dipped
Ermine fronds
They wilt at the open window
Their crushed faces defeated
The walls of your room are duck egg blue
And your mother’s lace curtains breathe into the room with the scent of Jasmine
And Summer on the wing
I will not return
We have played our parts with aplomb
And now
Softly out-sung by birds and bees
We will take our leave
The knowing of you burns an ember in my forehead
I am stripped bare in the understanding
Splayed naked
On the bed of our crucifixion
I have spent enough time in the owning of words
Like love and forever
Have learnt enough of those girlhood lessons
Stitched like parables to the sleeve of my shirt
You will know me as I am
You will know of these dark waters
Where swans no longer frolic
And stones sink suffocated in moss
I have spent a spring in full swoon
My heart a ripe crimson plum
Picked from the bough of your smile
Strung like fairy lights over the hope of your hands
Now,
Quiet and still my love
The forgotten stirring of lust marked by love
Flies from me
A spirit to the sky
And the walls of this room trap our voices
As if we are swimming in deep green seas
I no longer know this love
It has become a stranger at the door
It says your name
Letters roll off my lips
Get lost in the carpet
Become ghosts
Rocking themselves to sleep in the backyard swing
Laughing like naughty children
Impish and without conscience
These
Clean cut
Incisions
These break ups
Seem to be the only source of truth
And in the aftermath
Comes again
The living.