Wiles & Reputation

I etch love letters with the tips
                    of my fingers
       I’ve lined your armor thin with time
  There’s several cacti in the desert
          more beautiful than I, yet
         
   [We don’t see, you don’t see
                   that Queen of the Night]
            & it must be such a privilege
              to wander your village in any time
                 or space

        I imagine the curves of your face
        & where it might be rigid through age
            but smooth /though soft
   I hope your eyes
                  have never changed
                  like a distant remote lake,
              UNtouched by thrashing fate
          Wisdom gained, never cancelling
                              their gentle wonder
              
                 I think you’d wish the same

–LM
                  
           

Undone

Sometimes I wonder if
              inside this exhibitionist
                 existence you must
                    realize what I can
barely
         say___
             [ this is the fastest way ]
                  I do communicate,
        but___
        do you believe in love’s endurance?
        do you believe this assurance/
                   《 better yet 》   in me?

Maybe if I whisper it, this
                  widely known secret
                  I unmasked the fact quite early,
                                                         on

Gilded in summer air, under summer stars
               & now, for you, by you I am
                       gartered, aglow                       undone

–LM