Patrick Higgins: Untitled

Untitled

The music rises, just as a beautiful bud
climbs the stairs to top the table
The gentle lighting obscures the small scars on her stem
Perfect in every visible regard, immediately I am entranced
Unabashedly she unfolds her petals
In full exposure to the smoky air
Spreading wide for the pink neon sun
She appears a symbol of God's grace
In Fallen circumstances
Approaching me in her cat-like crawl
The ceremony has started
Pulling open her cheap garter,
Her sexy stare conceals the Shame of her fall.
Quickly inserting my cheap bribe,
My rigid face conceals the Shame of my nature.
Then, the customary exchange of glances
Each seeing the forgotten tears behind the other's eyes
I forgetting hers as she forgets mine.
The music fades as the clock strikes twelve
Again she is a bud, my trance is broken
Yet the lingering slipper is what I've forgotten
It still pricks at my chest, just as it scratches her stem.