in the end you implode me

I too am behind a wall
a great sea separates me from you

something dark about your face
but I cannot see you

you too thought it would be this way
but I   never

when we walked to the wall you were crying
but I   never

and you   you were the one who said   a sky
before I—could say anything

the Buddhas of Bamiyan imploded
but a thousand are born each day

you there before beginning
you before ever

I too thought we might marry
we had never met   a complication

in the end you implode me
as I walk calmly about street

looking down once again at my entrails
red-gold labyrinth

this after all was all I had wished
some kind of beginning   meretricious

"in the end you implode me" is from And Aeneas Stares into Her Helmet (Carolina Wren Press, 2009).