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First Love Revised

(Milk starts to drip inside the shadow:
all oxygen is shared with a curling blue flame.)

(Flowers are automatic.)
(Infatuation claims all public space.)

(And dreams begin at dawn;
but all progress is frightening.)

(The commissioned sculptor arrives wearing oven gloves:)
(The hired photographer is later found to be a novice:)
(The curator files future relics;)

I take her hand.

First Love Manoeuvres

Ashamed the angel admits; 
                            (she’s passed through others before me:)
                            (that our symmetry could never be exact:)
                            (that we weren’t conceived upon the same day.)

She notes my forgiveness;
                                  (the forgiving of the sun)
                                  (for the freezing nights)
                                  (on the premise)
                                  (she’ll always return.)

She thanks me;
                   (the passive hostage is thanked)
                   (for his co-operation)
                   (by a captor who knows)
                   (the hostage has nowhere else to go.)

First Love: Appearing Symptoms

I…it begins;
                 (a criteria is unfulfilled: a misjudgement follows its                      course passing now into an alien phase.)

      (the gaps between words straighten; and cluster with       
       thoughts we still deliver.)

      (overriding all props, the world rejects my 
       representation; and begins to undress.)

      (nerves dictate; the drinker fails to realise
       every option, every time.)

      (in silence the structure heaves;
       we approach and attain our critical mass.)

      (she appears to have no wishes or suggestions;
       no friction is offered so it gains pace) Maintaining itself.

First Love: Site Inspection Report 2002

Then the residue suggests:
                               (the exact minute of end holds no value;
                                everything spills over the margins of ceremony.)

  (the photographs stop changing
  after years of threatening to settle.)

  (vanity is forced to accept the evidence
  it can love without trace.)

  (the lab report proves to be correct: specimens
  can be pacified by conclusions
  but, can still wake at will.)

                              (then the climate finally yields something:
                               a combination is found;)
the circle is cut.