encounter –

are you the apparition at the window?

can you enter here on gilded-legs, bringing

with you the censure of all things? -- no

substance, the record-player singing

sires of Vision accumulating here in the Mist

our sacred Sisters rife with Shame

and ingenuity -- is it here you first were kissed

beneath a baleful Light, tamed

by the sentinel snake at your heel? -- he

will bruise you and you will crush his head,

unguent for your pain; he crawls on his belly

and you falter tumbling into bed --

what God reveals, we aim to fulfill;

these paces put through at His will --