Wendy Babiak

Rondeau for my Wedding Night

Tonight I have no desire to sleep, though this day

has drained me, the family show-and-tell: my bouquet

heavy with timeless ivy, the icons' weighted stare, the so-

whiteness of my dress begging for a wine-spill of Christ-blood

the pictures, the cake, the smiling 'til my mouth ached.

I should be empty of movement, after the grey

flagstones of the Sacred Heart's foundation swayed

beneath my satin-slippered feet. I should want sleep. No.

Tonight I have no desire

for anything but this, for you to place your hand this way

and unwrap me like a wedding present, open me

like a white silk envelope, for me to wrap you in the snow

of secrets and poems and thighs, for us to go

on never sleeping, for the time never to come when I say

"Tonight I have no desire."