Buying Beauty for a Dying Woman
He flies to Serenissima to buy
Dark beauty for his dying wife. She sleeps
Through nights and days now. Medicines are why
Profound exhaustion governs. Tiredness creeps
Through every artery and overwhelms
Dense veins. The drugs are causing all of this.
(That notion is her thought.) The deeper realms
Of death are never mentioned. That abyss
Is not considered baldly. As her hair
Falls out, they turn attention to the plush
Embroidery on velvet purple there
Across the jacket and the cape. A hush
Of loveliness and lace helps him to think
Of gravest gorgeousness. His eyes both blink.