X is easier to say

than is the foreign names

I gave you. Midnight

was a party in the garden, 

a train in the Balkans, or the Citadel

at Athens. I saw you coming

through the courtyard.

I looked up and lowered

my eyes. Then we got stoned

and opened to the sky. But when  

I let that desperate girl

escort you home,

I hated her so much

that I loved you—a strange expanse,

flushed cheeks, dark lashes.

Copyright 2017 | Pet Murmur