never

never fell victim 

to a lover a cruel

as romance 

he never doubted 

his ambition and 

abolition of everything

he had once believed 

and yet never laced 

a deal so sweet

as the one he had 

made that night 

on the balcony

and flowers dampen 

the land he once 

graced, failed 

and fallen upon 

the same ground i’d heed

breathing in 

the ocean and out the stars

falling in a state of fearless

forgotten to no one but the moon 

forgiven by the sea and stars

and body forwent to the earth 

mourning the same stardust 

that once pranced the planets 

and the plains that whisper 

his name, somber as a hymn 

lying in the fields we took for granted,

he tells me from behind the scrim

  he’ll sing along with the canted.