shakespeare's bondage
We touched. remembering
the lights in the swamp,
the false and enticing
ways a hope can fool, we
circled each other, my lips
a second away from your ear.
I promised myself and you,
then, that I would show you
the meaning of your own skin.
I promised to show you the fire
of want and the balm
of submission.
Your body aglow with reflected
flame, I was a spirit on your skin,
the giver and destroyer of need.
All your challenges stilled, I
drank your pain and sweated glory.
Your finest hour, tied writhing
to a bed, accepting all I thought
you might need.
And after, the flickering walls
recalled another room, another
bed smelling of arousal, another
old story of revenge. But sweet,
we slept innocent, not remembering
that tonight an old ghost bent
to his daughter, a fairy queen
took a lover, a girl kissed
a courier passionately.
We dreamed. waiting
for forests, for armies
for an ending to the siege
of our own impatience.
We wrote stories, lyrics
for a wandering shade
a king bound in a nutshell
a change of the wind
a walk on the parapet
a chamber described in rope.