Offering II

O Beauty,
O Towers of Love,
O Venus,
I come to You
in this moment this era this year of weakness
to throw myself down at Your feet
as Your faithful servant,
with the blood and ink to prove it,
and beg and beg and beg
and pull fragments of my heart from your chest
to get Your intercession.

O Venus,
I plead of You,
spare my heart from further fracture,
from further disturbance
by my love’s hand,
show me where I have strayed from Your path
and give me the strength to lead my love onto it,
give my voice Your clarity
and allow it to overcome me.

I swear
it has always been
in Your name
these words this blood this incorruptible drop
but I offer them once again.

I am the high priestess; it is written
all over my black vestal dress,
my nightmares my daydreams my narratives
of power through love my fantasies of a Culture
far greater and more powerful than our own;
allow me to be Yours allow me to be Yours allow me to be Yours.