the skin of her wet palms
is flayed away,
shred on jagged gold canines
while the earth bleeds out
beneath the wounds of 
the eldest daughter.
tidal-raging devotion 
provided with a sanctuary
within death and twilight’s sanctum,
she carves the hymns of her love
with the femur of 
a dead carpenter,
mother-of-pearl tipped
intoning the name
of He Who Took Her Hand –
Hades.