I love like a woman bound for the gallows
+++++++ waiting only for the day you leave me hanging
+++++++ and broken

Having committed the unforgivable offense
+++++++of falling for you
Involuntary adoration—helpless endangerment

You’ll never pardon me—they never do,
+++++++so stop smiling
+++++++++++stop flirting,
++++++++++++++stop texting
and kill me.
Please, just kill me.

I can’t bear to look through narrow windows
+++++++at bright and promising futures
I can’t bear to look in your eyes
+++++++and yearn for the feel of your skin
I can’t bear to hope
+++++++++++++++to hope
to hope
and find that the lightness I feel in my heart, and
beneath my feet,
is just the shaky steps
of the gallows.

If you cannot love me,
if you do not want me, dear warden,
then call your man
+++++++with his hood and his rope,
send word for the coroner and
+++++++++++the gaunt gentleman with his well-crafted pine box

Make it swift and certain
+++++++Check the knots once, then twice and then once more
Do not say you are sorry
+++++++Do not say you wish it could have been different
+++++++++and do not
do not
++++++do not
+++++++++++kiss me goodbye.
Kill me clean and make an end.

This poor prisoner I’ve become
+++++++so scared
+++++++++++so scarred
with rope burns ‘round my neck
Yet I shiver in my jail cell still
+++++++with its open door and I don’t
walk out

because I look through narrow windows
+++++++and see futures that are bright
I look in your eyes
+++++++and ache to know you, skin and soul

I sit in my cell in the shadows of gallows
and I hope
+++++++++++I hope, dear warden,

I hope
you’ll pardon me.