Marriage Bed
She is stitching his love letters across
the honeymoon cotton of a double quilt
where the long sentences ride over their sleep.
Chain stitch. The looping line on line pricked deep
into weave still bearing the iron's bruise
with all the hot creases and pressed scars.
The knots are inside, bitten off - chewed
and illegible tracings of negative print.
This is the downside, read in the mirror.
Her hairs catch on pointed words,
text messages, tattoos, where the stab and thrust
pins them, homefast. She chooses red,
has bought more reels of carmine thread
than her suitcase can close on, and a fistful
of needles. A labour of love, curling
into the hooks and claws of question marks,
the scarlet punctuation he prefers.
No one laughs at love, how it takes over,
how his words flow across the cotton.
She soaks her hands' raw meat in the salt flood
of commitment, ignoring the blood.
the honeymoon cotton of a double quilt
where the long sentences ride over their sleep.
Chain stitch. The looping line on line pricked deep
into weave still bearing the iron's bruise
with all the hot creases and pressed scars.
The knots are inside, bitten off - chewed
and illegible tracings of negative print.
This is the downside, read in the mirror.
Her hairs catch on pointed words,
text messages, tattoos, where the stab and thrust
pins them, homefast. She chooses red,
has bought more reels of carmine thread
than her suitcase can close on, and a fistful
of needles. A labour of love, curling
into the hooks and claws of question marks,
the scarlet punctuation he prefers.
No one laughs at love, how it takes over,
how his words flow across the cotton.
She soaks her hands' raw meat in the salt flood
of commitment, ignoring the blood.
Page(s) 15
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