MERCENARY MUSE

Mercenary Muse

By Tom Squitieri

I stop to catch my breath, 

the first of many forced pauses. 

 What does not stop is my heart, in its mosaic of trueness 

and glee and want and euphoria 

You toy and tease and we laugh together. 

 Your beauty is beyond that which we see, 

Stay silent, to wait for the musical score

 I will whisper in your ear

The light coming through the dancing window panes 

plays with the view others will not see. 

It put us into the rainbow of smiles and joy, 

the oohs of light bending through 

the glass square panels,

 taking any time of the day to make it alive for us together.

For that is what it is, a combustable connection the universe

 concocts rarely and has presented to us.

Oh, my mercenary muse, you stretch on your back

With ice and sizzle

Am image that stops me, seduces my words fully

Caught in a moment 

She knows what she has done, to exploit 

the yearning it causes

My mercenary muse. 

Always saying it will be more 

Pretending poorly I will be a partner,

when we know in the reality of

The airless sigh

And then, that grating voice, I hear clearly

To destroy the daydream. 

The loss of never

to taste, to smell, to touch

To move from hibernation

Into the smile that I know I can give.

My head knows the truth

She merely laughs and parries

 and sets a new price