TO LIGHTEN
THESE BONES
do not let him
sully you with
his tragic tale
the same one he
tells everyone, the
very one he
forced upon me
against my
better judgement:
would that he
had emailed it
to me or
linked me
to the post
on social media
for truth be told
I do not do it well
that most painful
of sub-genres,
tragic love
story,
once told that story,
insidious as a poem,
threatens to
never leave
will hollow out
your skull like
a bleak crypt
same space that hitherto
had served as chapel
of blessed marriage,
angels singing, whole
eternal until death
cast asunder glorious
moment, supreme jamboree
but now we
know how
false, how fake,
how ecstasy, delirium
stripped away
attention to detail
those telling details, demon
small-printed
her words
her vows
what sense
do they make now?
if only perhaps God
had changed the camera angle
changed the lighting
that tale
of despair
heard once
is too often
is stuck with me
forever
and then stark and stunning reminder
there is no redemption — there are
no creatures
to bless and then the
albatross curse falls
slips overboard
like an
evil lover
a life-
in-death lover
suddenly
called out
suddenly discovered
Oh this tale that has become so close, so real
his truth now
my truth
his loss
my wandering
his mirrored face so
full of my emptiness
perhaps
I am become
both tale of woe and of warning, corpse and groom
Janus-faced looking forward and backwards
at the very same moment
see the moral, see the meaning, get in close
so you might read the stone
which will teach a lesson, love’s
hardest, unkindest
no love, never love,
but at least peace to
lighten these bones
