Retraction

By Abdulkareem Abdulkareem

I offer the serenade in my mouth to the foundry,

the epithalamium brewing on my tongue to a guillotine.

            My love wore the guillotine, & it pulled the rhythm in my heart's softness 

            into break. I retract my fingers from everything  pertaining to roses.

A rose grew in my chest & it metamorphosed into tendrils twining to thorns. 

How I chased you with soft palms & could only grapple your shadow.

              Your shadow is what I've nursed with my love. I learned

               the anatomy of stars, to be the light in the tenement of your chest.

But you exorcized me, like a spirit trying to gain household of you

how I knocked your chest-door with a love to cherish. 

              I cherish all the days coated with the clashing of our shoulders, the coming

              together with our hands to punctuate the enjambment of every evening.

I have washed the evenings off my memories to recant from loving.

I offer the serenade in my mouth to the foundry.