Last Cry for Consent

Tinted glass splits open
Doors stomp closed
Candles define uncharted
Lines that do not cross,
Uncross when the right amount of light
Stretches to the right angle on the right day
The sixteenth as I recall
Was an auspicious day
The wedding was set to the tides
Long before they met

The dress white, with hyacinths
Embroidered over fear's sweet nectar
Veiled to shield the procession
From fierceness, shadowing
The black suit, pressed in tight rows
Of duty and honor and family
Pulled firmly over resolve

Sixteen lines on each side
How they all stood up to toast blood
Rightly, properly witness the passing
Of one ghost slipping into another
Vows choked out, not of love
As a eulogy of innocence

A shutter fails to obey
Banging in the wind's insistence
Defiance wails though the hall

Last Cry for Consent

A voice dressed in a feathered coat
Refusing the silence of another death
Shrieks "stop!" loud enough
For the stars to wake

White pinpricks, darts thrown
On a doubtful sheet of blackest day
Except sparrows do not speak human
Ushers shoo him away
Glass breaks, relieving color
Doors bend to the boot
Candles flicker and threaten,
The flame remains