What was it you promised

to keep in you, for me?

What was it you promised

a flame, a law, a key?

What was it you promised

in the half light of that room?

What was it you promised

to keep sacred for your groom?


Some tightly clutched virginity

some glance into infinity

some deeply hooded treasure

some harbor filled with pleasure

some glance in to the future

each stinging stitch, each suture

some ecstasy empathic

some prayer so pornographic

some stark and bare admission

of the naked lovers crucified in the 69 position.

A mistress? a whore? a slave?

A cruel and final reading from the tarot of the depraved?

To take me flesh to flesh

in the biblical way

beyond the light of places

where the cowled men do pray?

To call on me in my hovel

to make me beg as I so long to, to make me truly grovel

A promise spoken in fire and slime,

a lovers vow performed in mime.

To call my name when you come even though you don't know it-

to pay me my debt even though you don't owe it

What was it you promised me that night?




What was it you promised

as I labored to adore you?

What was it you promised

as I was on my knees before you?

What was it you promised

as my lips first touched the wine

What was it you promised

as my tongue found your words, not mine



A new skin for the shedding?

the rumor of a wedding

to be martyred by beheading

to display your bloodied bedding

in the streets of your submission

or not to ask permission

for your sins of grave commission

to rouse me from remission

to splay and lay, resplendent

to protect your independence

from the ghosts that fascinate you by the purity of their want

the depravity of their whisperings, the temptations which they haunt

to disregard the maiden aunts who gather close to warn you

and to leave your handless husband and come to California

to bite me and to scratch

to be my perfect match

to stimulate my mind

to do your best work from behind

a promise in a whisper

to let me kiss your blisters

to be the ghost of these long nights, alone in my room

to be my naked muse and my shining path to doom

What was it you promised me that night?



And what, please tell me what

For the love of God, please tell me what

As you left, in the rain

Just your smile hangs in the dim light of this restaurant

As you slipped into that cab

And hissed away from the kerb

And left me to hunger and yearn



What was it I promised…

What was it I promised…

What did I promise you in return?