The Oasis at 3am

Marius Grose

February 18th 1984

Chance encounters with the men who leave
sleep repairs the bites they make on your skin

they made marks on your skin, left sleep to repair
seal where they suckled and took what they could

they suckled and took, what you would give them
brothers with wounds they covered with leather

wounded brother in leather on the dance floor
a catch in the throat your lullaby

at the back of my throat your lullaby. Long
arc of silence in the bedrooms of strangers

in a strange bedroom unspoken words, a weight
of dead air, swollen dark in the river

unspoken wounds bleed, darken the river, after
chance encounters with men who always leave.