I would paint her, my dancer
not in pigments, but in flame,
the fire that devours prophets,
the thirst that undoes saints.
She is lust and lawless mercy,
a chalice of sin kissed by angels.
No heart beats in her breast,
only a temple of mirrors,
each one reflecting your hunger.
She kneels not to worship
but to undo.
She makes men weep
in the tongues of old gods.
She makes them beg
not for heaven,
but for her ruin.
Her father a shadow of Solomon
taught her the craft of wisdom
laced with whoredom,
of speaking riddles in silk,
of binding empires
with the sway of her hips.
And I
I hate her as I hate Iblis,
for the pride she wears like perfume.
Yet I love her
as the mystic loves his wound,
as the moon loves the tide
that breaks her in pieces.
O sons of dust
you who bear the names of kings,
you who drink from the well of power
why were you given love
like the sting of a hidden thorn?
To burn,
to ache,
to be calmed but never healed,
to haunt the soul long after flesh forgets.
You were offered wisdom, joy,
beauty, and vision
but before all else,
you were cast into the furnace
of desire.