Forgive and Forget

Farewell, my Smack-a-Roo, my Time-Tested Friend,
my Routine-in-a-Bag, my Small-but-Deadly Foe,
the time has come (I fear) for me to float free
and test the currents of dead air as I’ve never tested
them before, minus a safety net, minus a fish net,
add a hair net and what do you get? The two of us,
drunk as lords, surveying the kingdom that time forgot,
with all its war-time perks and bickerings, the blistering
nights that never offered a peasant relief nor a noble a blessing.

Sew your garments with Forget-Me-Nots, Ophelia's done
with them all, and carve your name in the Remembering Tree,
the one that sheltered us the morning when we committed murder
and slipped free, lost somewhere in between the Abyss
and your mother’s favorite sheltered cove, the waves sounding
angry as any god’s curse, the salty spray making good the promise
of the ages: act swiftly to preserve your heritages and  innocence...
or wait, as we did, for the fire to burn everything away: your eyes,
my mouth, your dented chest, my unforgiving arms, your broken teeth.