Sin Against Me

Trying to be a sestina.

Your pleasure noted, I turn around to better things

while you stand behind me, menace, script my god

and put in place eternity, a movie that you'll crave,

but I'll resign you, tumble you and call to you, my hero.

I broke a nail in someone's heart -- will you always

remember to stay mine? Will you bring me a blanket

 

just for tonight, with you? And we'll wear the blanket

together and for now until we drift along, our things

strewn behind us as we dance mercilessly and always.

I'll pray for you, I'll ask: "Have you met my god?"

Underwater we'll mate like frustrated heroes

and I'll ask you to tell me, just now, what do you crave?

 

We'll sway in time, and I -- I'll crave

your focus on my back, around me like a blanket

against this deathly chill, forcing you, the hero,

to declare war on ways of life and things

that pass throughout our dreams. Echoing a god

you speak defiantly, unlike your nasal hush of always.

 

You wrap yourself upon me, I move to always

understand the games we play, the games we crave,

the glory deep below. You surround me as a god,

clawing into a buried heart, sacred below this blanket.

You're too rough on me. I try. Later I'll carry my things,

walk along a humble shore until I find some other hero,

 

but no matter what goes on there, you'll be my first hero.

I'll lie back to you, I'll wander, I'll grab your arm always.

When the lights remove us we shall scream, as we are things

that no one loves or fears. We are what we crave,

and we cower close together now and victory blankets

engulf us with a blurry tone not fit for children of our god.

 

And the days of mindless love sink past, and the god

cannot control us. We wonder where we might find heroes.

I allude my love to you -- each night we torch the blanket

while you refuse to sing with me, musing always

toward some other life unraveled, during which I used to crave

a tower of my own. Instead I see a wealth of things

 

to cover with these blankets and offer to my god.

I will never love the things that make my love a hero,

but my spirit drips here always with the character I crave.