X - Lost love affairs

Adam, Anna and many others
Excuse the metaphors but
I have lifted up your dress
and read the words along the contours
of your legs, from your ankles
to the crown of your thighs

I have watched for the prophecies, rhythms
and the philosophies
written in the crescent dales of your waist
I became bored and wrote my own
on my very slender wrists
That's how I started writing for real

After reaching down between the steep verges
of your bosom
I have repeated the political speeches
faintly tattooed across its crests
They were ripe and pale when I had them
but after I was driven from the stand
I held only soft bruises
Damn the illusions of your brassiere

You stood on your box
and you lamented a past that never existed
I wonder if you learnt that trick from me
You welcomed in the future that I fear

So I wrote inflammatory remarks to arouse you
Don't tell me you weren't aroused
I'm charming like that

There was a lyric scrawled in haste
across the arches of your lashes
You said it was a simple truth
I never had time to sing it
for the wind out here turned these hundred pages
and closed the book in
a lash of a gust
Now all I have is its cover to judge
I am left with your empty dress
The one you wore when we warred
The one you cast out with my acquaintance
and my warning