QUOTE : Our marriage began<br />with knots and fangs;<br />vows inked on skin.<br />Black venom stained<br />our fingers, twinned<br />snakes strangling<br />the marriage vein<br />in Celtic macramé –<br />cocksure monogamy.<br /><br />We became one,<br />me and the gun,<br />the serpent reeling<br />itself from the needle.<br />I had few firsts left;<br />marriage a wild west<br />for the hedonist.<br /><br />Snakes unspooled<br />like figure-eights,<br />symbols of eternity.<br />Acrimony, alimony;<br />Leave the moaning<br />to adults. We children<br />will be wiser<br />wed, inoculated