:: Envoi ::

You once held me,
With your
Silver-tongued charm
Your song,
An aria of empty sweetness:
My hand, famished for affection,
Traced the void.
I was never braced,
Despite my nihility,
For betrayal;

In your mirror,
I am a leper
Sores in my blood, ice in my mouth:
Forgotten love-child between my legs.
You saw
You turned
And ran.
Shades of the midnight sun
Grin of a vampire morning
The days turn from raw to red to rancid.

Now I dance alone
Envoi in a vapour
Fade and flare,
A coma in extremis.

My last exhaltation
Before I drown:
A sanitised plea for forgiveness
My failure was my Faith.
I am chafed
By your clockwood goodbyes,

But I am no longer
Held enthralled.