Remuneration

The price is higher than he expects 
he smiles, wondering if it 
has something to do with the new 
black fishnets 
reaching up her thighs. 
She climbs in next to him, 
the slit in her skirt opening 
dangerously. 
Five minutes later 
his hand is laced 
in her hair. Their bodies lift, 
mouths touch. 
Deep, an inebriating drop of 
ecstasy releases into his blood. 
—a sliver of warm pain pulsing through him— 

            This liquored drop seeping through veins transmutes. 

            and appears as a bead, sliding from the lip of 
            That Midnight Sufferer 
            to splash on the garden ground in drops 
            of crimsoned rain.