Feast

Cannibals

Love demands its pound of flesh -

The body teased of muscle and fat,

The sinews, the glands, the organs:

A feast - without the letting of blood.

Remember now when it was fresh,

How need and desire together sat,

How the hunger was an emotion

Neither controlled nor understood,

With nothing sought, no redress,

Just that this was right and that,

That this went deeper than our skin.

But then this was just a prelude

To the flaying we could not but relish

With an avidity that hissed and spat;

Eating each other down to the bone:

Cannibals just playing with their food;

Loss of blood controlled and understood.