when you leave me, i will hold no funeral
i will bury our love in an unmarked grave
safe from the crowds of mourners
who only speak your name in vain
i will barricade your honor
under the tongue that never confessed
behind the lips you never kissed
inside the body that could not endure
all the impossible things I longed for
even when your body is long gone,
i will protect your precious name
like a soldier guarding his sovereign’s throne
from a dozen pretenders’ claims
i will build your monument in my own bones
on a windswept moor i shall grieve alone
in eternal vigil over our memories
where your beauty will live immortally
