The Voyeur

A photograph as fragile
as a necklace of ivory
carved in a World War II freighter.

We carry the sea inside us
and the memos of dreams
we write ourselves
augur the future
as surely as
the dark dreams of angles
build the nine circles
of hell.

Five lies you told me.
Five.
I will tell you one.
The coupling of phantoms
can only give birth
to a stone.