(for pegah emambakhsh)

please forgive me

where i was when they came

i can’t remember

moments in bone beneath coarseskin atop fist

then sun blind as i called outto you

baton opened my head like apink lotus

the black hot sack pulled overmy nose

this fragile body once a nookbetween thigh

and pelvis, thrown as wheelsturned over every stone

so many boots jammed betweenribs

when i woke, each inch of veinbeneath tissue atop muscle, blue

plum pulse hesitant to pumplife here

there is no life here

dirt where there should be food

damp air replacing our aftersmell

it has been four days. theyhave searched for traces of your hands

remnants of lip and soft tongueand still no evidence

come dawn the guards collectbroken cliffs along the road leading here

for palms that cup fury tight,then release

when rock tears flesh and theyhave dismantled me

a sacred house, they’ll neverfind the buried box

where pandora saved you forlast

never to drag you back here

back home

you soft parnassius, this isnot your fault

how rare your sticky wings;that my chest

had to be split open to freeyou. when they

fished my bloated bruised bodyfrom canal

how heavy your burden, humidair displaced

as new lover’s breath coercedby father

bids you wife. how did ourhymns turn war

crimes? our bodies yetcollapsed as rubble

our limbs arched overatmosphere, empty and

waiting for first kiss. to callthese beating

hearts unholy, as if godsresemble the same

sunset twice, mold glass fromidentical

grains of sand. keep me foldedin your cheek

speak me as if we only had onename