Cleaving
Like iron filings you were trapped against
My heart. It drew you to its outer flesh
And tried to suck you inward. You were fenced:
Your dark male filings harshly made a mesh,
A metal net to hold off my desire.
It turns out softened, hardened muscle can’t
Ingest your stiffness like the wood-piled pyre
Consumed the love of Dido. Hearts can pant
As magnets need the metal like a man,
But he is rigid. He resists. He sails
Away unswallowed. Sails fill out to span
Some other conquests. Spurned devotion pales.
..It pales in self-inflicted smoke and flame
….That sublimates true love. It shuns the tame.