Love Poem: Pirouette
Shiraz  Bautista  Avatar
Written by: Shiraz Bautista

Pirouette

Stepping into this room 
and the silence screams 
the slow burn of my lantern nearing its demise
To my surprise, what do I see? 

A single loose-leaf page 
with a single word -
“Hello” 

Defer my judgment, 
nothing to be inferred 
blurred, perhaps a bit unsettling 
but I’m sure it could be worse 

The page nailed against the wine-stained walls 
I recall, the door closing behind me 
as she enters, draped in Persian shawls 

Donning sapphire satin gloves 
clutching a sterling silver key 
her saffron skin tenderly tattered by melancholy 
but her voice crisp as the midnight breeze 

“Peel back the red velvet curtain, 
only to find that your burdens, 
your sinister sermons
worsen you as a person” 

The diminutive door 
our only way out
slowly shrinking 

Fumbling floor,
Flimsy earth beneath me
slowly sinking 

My rueful restraint, 
reverent reasons for denial 
falling apart like an aging empire 

My doleful dame, 
my playful paramour 
pirouetting in the grace of my desire