Vous N'avez Plus

Beneath the canopy, I walked
I hastened through the night.
Perhaps I thought about the time
I met a girl
and broke my nerves.
Strange memory, for
next to my heart, beneath my breast
my alveoli swelled.
The light had already deepened.
She lived between paper pages
and sang through water and paint
but paper and paint eventually fade.
Now my legs, possessed of a sound
flit across the tarmac, across the sheen
for I no longer believe.
Could I ascend to heights
already bearing a claimant?
I hardly think to say.
I couldn't find a way.

Whilst writing these words,
I lightly conversed
with a veiled girl, who lightly smiles--
her hair a dark curtain,
behind which she hides.