Let’s pretend I’m dead
it’s easier that way
you can spin some
complex story

in your head
of what I did &
didn’t do.

Let’s lay me out
in white:
pink lilies
by my side

a beatific smile
‘cos if ‘I’ can’t be ‘we’
it's the only way
for you to be

without me.

Yes, let’s pretend
I’m dead:
not cold & in
a tomb

but burning up
in fire, the priests
are robed in red
the river flows

so wide
& garlands throng
the bank, incense
fills the air

I smell like roasted
pork, my ashes
flake to white
the pageantry

& pomp belie
the slow sweet
stink of time.

Yes I am dead
& gone,
my lovers form
a line

at least they
could decide
what ‘love’
meant,

all anecdotes
aside
they knew
I couldn’t hide

from freedom.