after Giotto
 
 
Two men enveloped
in gold, steadfast.

          (Judas, this is a kind
          of love, too.) Bandage

those hands, you cannot
touch him. A press

          of lips isn’t enough –

but this is before
the hanging &

          the hundreds
          of other ways of learning

that lamentation is
just another name

          for preservation.

Is this the first
instance where a man

          who loved another
          man had to die

because of the
impossibility of

          happiness?

Drink, Judas:
there are worse crimes.