In My Mind's Eye

Love, M.L.

i remember the blue dress she wore

the day the trial began

that girl was a mansion lit by the brilliance of a broken flame

mistaken for a cottage blurring into balmy midnight

that girl could electrify a city of light-bulbs

with one flick of an idle hand

and coat the tongues of all the men in the world

with the smoke of her cigar

girls like that tease married men into scandals that define a generation

and call the stains an indictment

claiming innocence by virtue of docile insanity

as the wives stuff letters of condemnation down the backs of their throats to dull the fame-drunk truth with lackadaisical lies

as both of them muster the nerve to breathe the same air as the empowered

to live a life not marred by the misgivings of affairs

and fade into an illusion of liberation

carved in the skin beneath the shackles

that bind her heart to her mind

and bind my soul to the blue dress she wore

the day the my trial began