Balthazar and Blimunda

Here's a story of the days gone by 

I could see the stars but not the sky

It was a sight without reason

A quarter fool is half a heathen

We were dancing on a precipice 

caressing on the half-turn

gasping at the vastness beneath

The inquisitors calling us to burn

The ground was a palimpsest of trodden tales

Put your ears up close

And you could still hear their wails

I willed my hand in through the flames

Through the rage, despair and broken shame.

Out into the world where the crowd brayed

Diminished and redundant 

Like the smell of water hyacinth 

plagiarized on the marble plinth

Like the fire in the creeks

Now selling in the streets

You, my love, are life strung nude

But stay a while in this searing darkness

I am burning desire in the shadows for you to breathe in  

Not solitary, but still in solitude