Guarded

O confining steel! O too constant companion!
In your embrace I sleep the sleep of innocence
and awake pure, and chaste, as in dreams I am chased
by stallioned hunters riding and a-blowing their horns
till upon me they come, circling proud and joyful,
riding crops biting the air, champagne gushing forth
and I -

And I awake to cold cruelty and salvation,
to my knight’s steadfast protection, his mighty shield
proof against the jousting of my own too lustful fingers;
like Guinevere guarded by Lancelot I am cursed
to forever burn for the slightest touch, the gentlest kiss,
upon the softest - and the only - lips that matter...