Soft Seduction
I sit at the silent
banquet table
and peer out
into the open
darkness
at your distant
walls
Across the screech
of night birds
beyond the still
trees
rises you citadel
surrounded by sleep
While I walk
the invisible
corridors
of your heart
searching
for a passageway
to slip
by the guards
Poetry!
A key turns
slowly
in the lock
But I will not steal
into your bedchamber
and take you
I will leave
the door open
and see if it is locked
tomorrow
I will dream
of your ankles
in red shoes
and the corner
of your lips
when you
smile
and the distant
look
in your eyes
when I touch
nerves
you wished
severed
but are not
What will you dream
in your citadel
knowing a foreign army
is camped
outside your walls
I will build bookshelves
not hollow
horses
I will befriend
your dogs
and read your books
I will take you swimming
in the river
I will see you
undone
but not take you
I will wait
I will be your friend
I will seduce you
with an open
heart
I will wait
outside your walls
I will know
your secrets
Already
I know more than you think,
I know
where your pain
lies
deep in the wounded
labyrinth
of your tower
where the skeletons
of other men
are chained
Lovers on the rack
that you abandoned
And empty bedrooms
and the open windows
from which they fled
And when you awoke
to find yourself
alone
you rose
and walked
across
the cold floor
and locked the door
And slept
in another bed
and another
That is why your castle
has so many rooms
That is why
you sleep alone
That is why
you draw your lips
so thin,
That is why
your shoes
are in boxes
and your bra
is on the floor
That is why
the walls are so high
only a thief
would scale them
only a thief
would try
Only a thief
would be indifferent
to the defenses
You’ve know to many thieves
That is where your
pain lies
You burned the corpses
outside your walls
and scattered
their ashes
nothing grows there
And you rebuilt
your tower
higher
above the arcade odor
of charred desires
And you thought
you were safe
and you are
and your heart
wanders
the corridors
of closed doors
and rests only
in the trusted
embrace
of guard dogs
I will not disturb you there
that is your private place
I have no desire
to steal your
frightened
weary
heart
I am more dangerous
than that
I am an old book
I am an unfinished letter
I am the friend
that wants
nothing
I am the disarmingly
familiar
I am the mirror
you pass by
unnoticed
I am the empty room
you have not
entered
I found it open
and am waiting for you
there
