SONG WITHOUT FORGIVENESS

You should have known. The moon

Is very slender in that city. If those

Letters I sent,

Later, filled with details of place

Or weather, specific friends, lies, hotels—

It is because I took the attitudes of

Shadow for solitude. It is because you swore

Faith stands upon a black or white square,

That the next move

Is both logical and fixed. Now, no shade

Of memory wakes where the hand upon a breast

Describes the arc of a song without forgiveness.

Everything is left for you. After the bitter

Fields you walk grow deep with sweet weeds, as

Everything you love loves nothing yet,

You will remember, days, you should have known.