I watched you run down a dusty Paris street
With my cracked glass heart held in your palm
Cradled safe against the altar of your skin
As your heels kicked away the ghosts that dwelt
Lazy in the labyrinths that lay beneath
Magic-worn cobblestones as the day closed
Edged with the thin gold leaf of forlorn hopes.

I chased you through emerald fields in Ireland
And watched you spill out onto the grass
Like the sweet red berries of summer wine
Tumbling between my lips and clasping me in
The home that you made of limbs and love
Curling me close with my head to your chest
As you became the only thing I could taste.

I caught you in the midst of a Venetian masquerade
With black and white pearls dripping from your throat
And the gold of candles striking alight your skin
To play around the edge of that secret smile
That you held up to me like a sacred offering
Your eyes slipping past my masks as your hands
Slid like cool water and washed away my burnt sins.

I ran away from you into the embrace of New Orleans
Until the siren song of your blues wrapped around
My waist and snaked up my body in shivers
As your eyes swelled like jewels to gently ensnare
This poor beggar who had nothing more precious to offer
Than the ragged cloth woven of his heart and soul
Hurricane-battered by his own resistance.

And yet somehow, it was enough.