I am humiliated by how close I stood to you,
how I lifted my throat and let feeling spill out,
tongue slack, ribs open,
like a dog barking itself raw at the feet of the one it trusts.
I showed you coldness where there should have warmth,
need where there should have been restraint,
my devotion snapping its teeth at air, begging to be named love.
Now I lower my head.
I learn the weight of my consequences.
I learn how obedience looks like regret
once the hand is gone.
Thus once more began the night.