--- M E L A N I E   B O G U E

The trellis is shaking with guards
as the curtain opens:

Despite the lost battle, the queen accepts
the knight without question.

He lifts up the saliva-blue sheet, as if
unwrapping gauze.

He watches her legs rub together.
"Take these butter knives," she says.

He drops his forget-me-not
cloak over the bed and prunes his beard.

She can't believe it's so hard  
to fool disappointment

as they crush the bedstraw mattress
and she opens her mouth

full of jewelweed and marriage.