Alexander s lover

That day he died,
Alexander's lover,
The sun climbed high
And gilded his closed lips.

Alexander, just the night
Before the fateful battle,
Conquered him again:
Naked he wanted,
Naked he took.

Then he breathed his memories
Into the lover's tender ear.
And the lover, of course, listened.

Listened to the sandy stories of Asia Minor
And swollen limbs of Babylon.

But mostly Alexander whispered of his
Witching wife:
How her dark hair fell
On Alexander's
Temples.

He listened until the night came
To dress them. And in the dark
The lover changed his smiling face.

The morning brought no repentance.
Alexander embraced his lover tight
With words of love, and
Could not see him weeping.

Outside the sun burnt the lover's
Armour that took him somewhere awful
And came back emptied.

Now Alexander coins the lover's
Eyes with two belated words.

***

The armour's celebrating colours
Don't protect those who throw
Their young bodies onto a bare Indian lance.

One never sees the other's face in an embrace.