Tanner’s Demise

Thief of Kisses

He was a fiend of hearts, was Jon Tanner;

seducer of women by wine and by song.

But one day a maiden too fair did Tanner

meet and kisses steal and away into the night

stole as though no promise lied through

puckered lips might hold him to a single

heart. But Duke Marinton’s daughter

had no will to lose what she herself had trapped

and claims as prize. So into shadows inken

she in stealth wades Tanner’s wake as though

a pirate sloop on bounty bent. And bent she is,

Marinton’s daughter. For never a hand in denial

or discipline was raised against her, never a dream

or whim or wish denied. No denial ever stuck, as

though a changeling girl whose will is Word.

And so upon Tanner she steals, and in shadows

hides until his breathing dreams decries . . .

Jon Tanner makes no boast, nor never again

a kiss shall steal, for Marinton’s daughter

holds his final kiss in a crystal jar.

David M Pitchford
30 April 2008