The Nightlight

Lustrously blue in that soft, impossible light

The way we danced, forehead to forehead

Your skin like the sheet that swaddles the night

You held me hostage in the dark recesses

The mist over our eyes thickened and turned red

Lustrously blue in that soft, impossible light

Of all the times we made our egresses

I think of the one that struck you dead

Your skin like the sheet that swaddles the night

I wonder, if we’d studied our pretenses,

Would we have left so much unsaid

Lustrously blue in that soft, impossible light

And when your chest convulsed with stresses

You writhed like a headless snake on the bed

Your skin like the sheet that swaddles the night

Later,

I take from the box your Sunday dresses

And press the folded linens to my head

Lustrously blue in that soft, impossible light

Your skin like the sheet that swaddles the night