What would it take to get that heart beating again?
Parian marble pumping blood
through hardened skin.
People pass, their mumbling a wall of gray fading
into the background.
The roar of the water has come to a head.
Your eyes look through me past
bone and sinew, burning
through marrow, deconstructing
the fabric of my flesh.
But your gaze is the same for everyone and I am just
one paramour out of millions.
Please let me go.
“Keep chiseling until I deem you beautiful.”
My flaws are apparent,
a blur of uneven teeth, a soft body, and dark skin I prayed you
could love.
Your fractures are gorgeous.
Vertebrate after vertebrate bending until they melt
into the coast of Cyprus,
with dimples kissing
your spine like craters adorning the moon.
You were told to decide
between war and fire and chose yourself.
Born of rage and vengeance,
this is not the first time your expression has cracked,
nor will it be the last.
You gave birth to lust, terror, fear, and attraction,
harmony and charm exiting
your womb.
Mother of chaos and peace.
But that was eons ago, before you called Caesar
to heaven, before your flesh hardened
along with your heart.
There was a spirit on your lips the last time
we kissed, and now I taste poltergeists each morning that I rise.
Your poisoned wine tore down empires, temples rendered to ashes,
grazing the wounds of lovers
you’d scarred.
You helped me bleed out
a toxin that you’d administered.
A treasure lost
to the Aegean Sea for millennia, now a display piece.
A deity entombed in stone, locked
away in Paris.
Holy is the girl that emerged from the ocean,
an intoxicated vagabond drunk
on affection. I am not willingly seduced, but you tower
over me Lagerstroemia floribunda shifting in the sea breeze.
A futile effort, I do not resist your enticement.
There are riptides forming between what
could have been your open arms,
what should have been your open arms.
To the fairest one, the hedonist, the virgin, the celestial goddess
formed from the burbling of the sea.
You are both the water in my lungs
and the breath between waves.
My face wet with saltwater, lighthouses illuminate
our misconduct.
Why do you only love me in the dark?
I could not have prepared for you.
Leaving should be easy
but no, I am trapped between you
and a hard place.