Artemis chides the night

Single Star Dawn, originally uploaded by thepres6.

Peel away this smooth silver bark, my love.
I have hidden my white flesh beneath
and there it waits unblemished.
You have plucked from me the myths
of mercy and salvation, purged my lips
of psalms and atonement. There are lilies
instead, sprung like egrets from your palms.

My prayers are sent on their wings,
parchment scrolls rolled tight and slipped
between the milky shafts of blanched feathers.
All of my pale promises are yours now,
given in the snow white hours. I want you
blinded by the silent brilliance of my body

hung before you like a new sail, empty
but for the want of wind. All of this I offer-
the gulf that shimmers between us,
morning’s reliable hunger for the sky,
every windowpane that catches the October moon.
I lift my arms, brittle as the aspen branches

found fallen after the wind. In this way you see me
as nothing except what you disdain,
a yawning chasm with walls of chalk
and thirst. I am not afraid to grow
dim in your eyes. I have lodged my radiance
in a borrowed star. You can not begin
to comprehend how much you love me.