If a man once loved you,
he’s turned you into a moth.

That’s how he’ll remember
the flutter: that numinous,
that beating, that winged.

Angels and moths:
that’s who men love.

But I don’t recollect like that.
I don’t think I ever loved
that gently. And I’ve never
flown toward a burning
house, hoping, maybe
my faith lay in that
single thing left,
in that smoldering filigree.
I never reminisce
a sorrow that delicately shaped.

But sometimes I feel someone remembering
me that way: translucent,
crazy, awake only at night.
He’s regretting his fingertips
were not wide or soft enough.
He’s mourning me now.
He’s imaging me eating away
at someone else’s light.

And that’s perfect.
That’s exactly how
he always wanted to love
me. My wings, my hair-like antennae
hanging;
my frenulum
between his forefinger
and his thumb.

∞ 137 notes

Olena Kalytiak Davis, Angels and Moths

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