Requital

You once said that there is no pillow
so soft as a clear conscience; to that
I will fight you with a memory still intact
of a woman you abandoned in a city,
new to her like a sky on fire; eyes
straining in vain to glimpse your
figure in the shadows of the streets
and alleyways.

That woman was the one who stands
before you now, stronger than you had
ever thought I would be; I rose high above
your reach, like the phoenix, and the wounds
you had inflicted upon me healed in the
tenderness that was lost upon you.

May panic rack you one day, coiling
its tendrils around you as it had to me
in that night of fear. May your blood
run cold at thought of the many ways
you had broken the one who loved
you in spite of it all, and may you be
resigned to the heavy burden that
guilt brings to the worthy.

That will be revenge enough.