Raven Night

She spills across the night in reckless light-  

a nightshade smile too sharp to be benign.  

Beside the black mirror of the lake he lies,  

already burning in the veins of his own want.  

.

The water keeps its counsel, cold and deep,  

yet shows him what he will not admit:  

under flawless skin, a practiced art  

that rides the warm night air and pulls him under.  

.

The moon slips down like a spent coin.  

Her wrist turns; the water flares dark red  

for one heartbeat-  

a lazy, lethal wink-  

.

then the wind snaps ice across bare skin.  

No dawn will matter here again.  

He’ll stay forever in the undertow  

of that ordinary, exquisite cruelty  

.

some women wear the way others wear perfume.  

She rises over him, luminous, half-floating,  

skin flaring scarlet in the low moon’s fire.  

Her mouth finds the pulse beneath his jaw;  

.

his eyes blow wide with animal awe.  

Living lips, lethal and lush.  

His fingers knot in raven hair that smells  

of smoke and something metallic.  

.

Then the long fall begins-  

a bright spiral down the locked throat of desire.  

He stares into her eyes  

dark, human, victorious  

and comes completely, gloriously undone.