Susan Darlington
Silver
The silver threads around your body
needle the air with every false promise
and every chaste kiss you’ve received.
Their stitches glisten in the morning dew,
darn the cloth of your skin to that
of all the Judas’ who have stolen a piece
of your time, for whom you still hold a light.
The silver leeches draining your body
are not afraid of breaking you, to draw the
bind
ever tighter with a word of duplicity.
Listen to me when I tell you you deserve
better,
that with my blade of gold I’ll cut the
threads
before they burn your skin and trace the lies
back to the stone of their purled mouths.
The silver hands clasping your body
fall one by one as I scythe them off
with the crescent moon. They tumble
to the ground, wither in a pyre
of gnarled knuckles and cracked finger nails.
As I touch your lips the tinder blazes
and the mast heads around you splinter.
Page(s) 55
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