Leontes

Like the tremor of an avalanche,

the mountainside slips into riverbed

as he falls headlong, launching

down crevasses, alarms pulsing red.

Oh, how fear stirs at that instant—

guillotine blade descending.  He grows pale

when she wets her fulsome lips against

another’s ear and whispers what she pleases.

A trapdoor opens below his startled heart

when her eyes flutter in coquettish guise

and when he hears her laugh upon parting.

He laments as he mortars walls for his prison.

He hears music echo above his dark cell

and clicks the lock that jails his despair.