He made his palm a slab I laid on,
his mouth a tomb. Just shy
of fourteen and wed in a plume
of moss and old meat. Call us hasty,
ill-advised; though the adults bent
to our will, it was the children
who kept dying. Death spread like water
to every hidden room: the chapel’s
damp basement, the bed soaking
with clothes. We’d barely begun
our vows when it poured opened my blouse
and raised his sword. Forgive us,
Father and Mother. We ended
like most couples do: one at a time
lying beside each other.

