Do what can’t be undone
just to prove what won’t become love
lust serves to supplant, works
almost as well, in fact, in its
absence to displace the

rusting ache of that ballast heart
no man’s warmth can move nor
dredge up from hell’s depth, only the
efforts of his hands and
mouth. Ship out, friend, before he can

use you the way you have
him, so transactional and so
tempestuous, bailing
when he begins sinking into
the way your way with words

encourages him to voice what
sins & secrets he’s never
confessed, or uttered, to any
other as much as he
has in his crippling crush on this

passing phantasm, whose flame
starts like a star rising above
every heavenly
expectation, and falls when its
fire’s starved by dawn’s hunger.