The Broken Sanctuary. (Revised).

We did not expect to find these pictures on our computer.
Now we understand how cruel pornography is.
It is the clawing of the sacramental out of the human
And thus transforming the naive, the quietly innocent
Into a cheap commodity,
Something to be sold on line.
A kiss in the dark is merely a kiss in the dark
When viewed from this perspective,
And the long happy hours that we secretly spent together
Changed into a peep show by a sly, self righteous photographer
Peering in through our window, Leica pressed to his nose.
He can only see what the digital camera sees,
He can noway perceive the mystery, the tenderness of this love
Between such very different, and diffident, lonely people
Born decades apart, and in two antagonistic cultures
That so rarely come together,
The Roma and the city dweller.
All he can see is a man and a dark haired woman,
Her bridal gown neatly laid out on the table,
Their naked bodies entwined on the hotel bed.
We did not expect to find these pictures on our computer.
We cried for days when we first caught sight of them.
But the truth that we own cannot be found in hazy photos,
So we take life as it comes, and try very hard to forgive.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
May 20th. - 21st. 2019.
Partly inspired by various modern takes on Petrarch.