Barraqué Breaks Off Their Love
The breaking off of love is not a small
Affair. It’s not like breaking off a limb
That’s hanging from a tree. It’s not at all
Like breaking off the singing of a hymn
Because the practice isn’t going right.
It’s more like sacrilege, like blasphemy,
Perhaps like breaking off the part that blight
Has ruined, cleansing of a heresy.
It’s more like Cronus ripping off an arm,
The eating of a son, or rather more
Like puking him back up. It causes harm
Like rubbing out a rediscovered score
With every perfection contained in Bach
And Brahms, a king’s head falling from the block.