1.
Consumption's kiss was impossibly tender.
Like an anglerfish you pulled me under.
I have not wit enough to woo.
Bewitch me speechless, oh wizard of want.
Call the police on this heart of flint.
These youthful terrors are not very pure or true.
On Good Friday I gave my last promise away.
With my last match I burnt down Troy.
I'm perfectly, bloodily daggered in two.
The tarantella ruined my best boots.
An epidemic of silence conquers the streets.
2.
Pity poor me, a mute and forgetful Jew.
Like all small tragedies, I drag on and on.
No love can unbutton this soft jail of skin I'm in.
Desire deludes worse than the flu.
Of all sordid creation you're the utmost harlot.
Look at this laughingstock, this love like a silver bullet.
The baker's daughter sleeps in a coffin of yew.
Solstice vampires into eclipse.
Into sweet dreams I relapse.
Neglected, my heart beats askew.
❦