To a Faithless Lover

         I want to understand your dreams of flesh

Follow you to unknown worlds of sense,

To accept such knowledge and read the signs

Of secret yearnings conceived in stealth

And carried out in  dread  of  day.

But shall this mingling of our wills erase

the image of your body dear

In  supine crucifixion stilled.

Will I remember in the midst of wild frolics

The emptiness these disclosures bared?

It is not that I don’t understand

The meaning of your ways

Or fail to perceive their innocence.

Let us each to our secret paths return,

You to your agonies of flesh

And I,  the stillness of spirit regain.

                                                                                                                        Antonia Baranov