Her wry patina etched face withers
A spavined effigy raped and ruined
By past atrocity, disappointment
And the relentless passage of time
Like the portrait of Dorian Grey
Whose worn canvas painted smile
Became a reflection of men’s sins
Twisted and turned upside down
Years drape her marcid gaze
A veiled and fraying simulacrum
Of acrid wafting past memory
Attached pain pinned reminders
Mar her downcast countenance
Stuck, fossilized and frowning
Like a dead butterfly crucified
Under glinting caught glass
Honey spilt love songs culled
By jaunty beaks of hummingbirds
Episodic nectars of heartbreak
Gathered and built into her lips
Like when she fell for a friend
Abandoned, pollinated and stung
His stinger still buried deep inside
A painful, pricked proof of a time
No more
The Tigress Awakens 