Chard deNiord (Putney, Vermont, USA): "Memoir"

I willed the knife to hit the mark and it did,
sometimes at the point, and stuck. Practice
led to skill, until my eyes were handkerchief-
covered, and my beloved straddled a wheel
for all to see as I threw at her. I hit the space
between her legs, beside her head, beneath
her arms. This was it, all or nothing: my life
and hers as a perfect twist where every night
she was reprieved for having lived, and I was
kissed as she was freed. This, as part of the act
that traveled the country, built my fame,
as the man who misses with perfect aim.

© Chard deNiord 2007