---

And so, the gate is kissed,

Hope escapes and invites bliss

With cracked tongue split on rust-etched glyph

Entrust to me, who witness it

They said her name

Was not the same

As ages back, engulfed in flame

And writ in ash and coarse remains

Where bile-drenched, the gate prolapsed

Fingers grow from altar slabs

Her footsteps, which mere seconds last

I follow - as she falters

Because I was in love, with the smell of mercy

A smell like earth and sea

And any mother's lunacy

To love her children, you and me

As I pull the wings from flies

Without mercy considered

And any mercy withered

From my famined, coiling mind

Forgotten keepsakes, pickled fine

Remember, and they turn into wine

Bile falls into my eyes

And burns away where mercy lies

Like tallow rain from ceiling bruised

Both laughter and lament misused

Shaped like god, an idol starved

She lies, into her mercy carved