The Appointment

Lie with me my darling
We'll talk of burning things
The black urgency of the horses' eyes
Melted in the street

The faint smell of hibiscus
The cracks around your lips
Slowly painted over
In some morning before this

My love, I stood for days
Trying to piece back into place
All the words that fused together
In the fluffy ashen pages

I surrendered every one of them
And the case that couldn't come with them
Just to be with you
To be surrounded by your room
With its outline of a fireplace
Behind the chair, by the fern

Talk with me my darling
We'll lie of burning things
The girl ablaze by the lake
Though I could never have seen it

Your light breeze from the ceiling fan
And traffic hum downstairs
That thing you do with your left foot
At the edge of the carpet squares

My love, I could never sleep
Beneath the blankets nor the sheets
Beyond the new meridian
Scratched into my years

I surrendered every one of them
The long long days, the months of green
Just to be with you
To be surrounded by your room
With its sunlight on an absent mantle
And the hour ending soon
Our hour ending soon