Lost

And when I am near to you

the world’s blade has lost its edge,

the bite of the wind

and the leering gaze of men

lessens in my mind’s eye.

You are a fire-river dragon,

breathing golden flames across my skin,

and I am the river’s maiden

asleep beneath the waves

as you curl

around me,

in envious desire.

The pale eyes of my love

once stared back the fiends of Hell,

and the wintered knowledge

of his tongue

had won a match in Heaven.

I am empty

when I cast eyes

upon your lupine back,

spine twisted in animal shapes

and face dark

with shades of new hunger…

I am unable to breathe,

I lose my self-possession

as a Chinese maiden loses her comb

by the tides of a restless sea.

092099