I wish I had inherited such drama.

But love requires performance

Love could have remainedthe arranged thing, the pronouncement.

Why the sudden anguish (where I rush to him),the swelling in music?

It would have been easier to give into the shape assigned him, not to have summonedthe cry—

to have given into the quiet . . .(while seduction was still a form of disappointment).

yes,I think you want emptinessalso, let's have it.

I return to tracingthe line. It's not unlike the wayI trace myself back to myselfafter returning from spaces that haveno place in me. Not unlike the wayI trace over moments with you when youare no one I recognize.

It's not what he was promised.The land looks strange, unearthly strangeand unforgivable.