Love. Love?

               Love.  Love?

 …………………………..“Love is not love
      Which alters when it alteration finds”

My grief for you began before God killed

You, long before you died.  I grieved for you

When you went off to cocaine land and spilled

Your genius in the dirt.  I mourned the true

Things you had lost.  You lost your son inside

His mother’s womb, abandoned her and him

To druggy lies the color of the hide

Of Satan, jettisoned your love for whim

Of nostril and the needle, tourniquet,

And bloodied veins.  I handed you to Christ

In front of mild St. Francis but the sway

And gloss of darkest curls sacrificed

My offering to failure.  I fell back

In gasping sobs, entangled in that black.