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.