lily hills white

sacrificer à vénus

these are hedonist wants,

lascivious desires that have inundated
the sanguine brine of my body,

that have laughed in the face of noah's arc;
the saviour's wrath,

a woman sheathed in sin.

i have been tempted and tempted and tempted,

sojourned in the catacombs of paris,
buried amidst mummied ancient gizan rulers,
been disregarded somewhere between the han dynasty and rome on the silk road,

been drowned and drowned and drowned,
-by god, by the salem trials, by you-

i have known dictatorship and democracy and survival before it all.

i have died and died and died a million times over megaannums to love you.

and yet, here i am,

still.

mon amour éternel,
susurrate leviticus through the berms
of my weather-beaten thighs,
whisper verses in every language
you know, dead or alive.

kiss me in english,
"are you sure?"
make love to me in italian
"sì, amore mio!"
and scream at me in spanish
"¡parada! ¡parada!"
and promise me in french
«je t'aimerai toujours!»
and remember me in death
--and in life and in death and in life--
in the collapse and rebirth of latin.

o putrid love! o boundless desire!

this love for you is more than an oath,
more than a religion,
a nightmare for atheists and believers alike,
of sin so grand it beckons rapture,
of belief too wide to behold.

it's the flood itself!

where this time,
the boat comes for everyone
but you, but me, but us.

o victorious murder! o victorious suicide! o hell'en love!

i have been tempted, i have drowned, i have died.

and o! i have loved.

i have loved, i have loved, i have loved.