What was missing was the sin,
the mistake, the pivotal event,
and thus the great unfolding drama
lacked its tragic climax. Gone too:
the need, the chance for atonement.
We used to sit beside each other,
skin kissing skin,
and you reading the paper,
and me lost in the fascination
of pulling the black hairs on your
ghostly legs.
Long before creatures
obligingly crawled
into ice, earth, stone,
to become fossils,
determined to seek
life after death,
there were no comfortless speculations
of science and religion.
During the interrogation,
I was asked no questions.
I said nothing, observed a man in gray suit,
Even his face was painted gray,
His eyelids a dark blue.
He was dancing a galliard
In the shadows of a statue
Of Galileo. I said nothing,