Don’t Live Forever

                 Un double bref double—

                             i.

The fire of my hell burns brighter
with your image, in response to your touch
my body’s tremor proclaims yet
another deity’s dread arrival

we enchant by singing evil
incantations waged against each other,
love is not enough to save us
from dark magic so why bother defile

brother set against brother? Our
bodies more than capable of sin bend,
arrows gripped, to send massacre
in torrents milked from wounds opened and bled

to honour them, then, those liar
gods our impulses fed, beds hungriest

                             ii.

for us to phœnix-nest nights there
despised by our higher selves making feasts
of lust, of flesh, sweating ashes
we shed like fire in the minds of men full

of mercenary desire no
morals quell, told ‘Never live forever’
by your smile while my libertine
lifestyle swallows vinegar-dissolved pearl

as a reminder: ‘Remember,
lovers are no better than alchemists
at getting treasured, when trash their
efforts tinker turns to pleasure,’ wasted

hours ours together might yet more
than ever be forgot without regret.