Sestina (II)

I hide the answer, know the riddle’s shape
Partial feints find their full avowal
Subtext surfaces, if not for the code
The game asks too much of the tongue
Each turn demands a fight of the shadow
The mask is heavy, heavier still is the veil

~
Beautiful, scarred visages beneath the veil
To name it now cements it into shape
Cease resistance of our kin, the shadow
Glorious and true - I still hold avowal
Skin longs to be traced by the tongue
Keep nothing theirs, claim your own code

~
Delights in play, bodies stalled by code
What else have we yet to find below the veil?
What sounds foreign still finds my tongue
My hand has not touched it, still I know its shape
Mine stay formed - I wonder at your avowal
Dance unseen. Play lives in the shadow.

~
Every fire still casts a shadow
Wisdom awaits in the shadow’s code
Diaphanous, it can dissolve, the veil
More than mischief - insight in its tongue
Ghostlike, blurred with light, yet keeps a shape
Absorb one’s shadow - claim as your avowal

~
Words lie vulnerable, find force as an avowal
What remains hidden in a promise’s shadow
A true vow needs no written code
Pooled gently on the ground - the veil
No slips of my careful tongue
Unable to touch it, yet it has shape

~
An ache to hold your every shape
Hands open to receive your avowal
Bring your drawl and timbre - dance them on my tongue
Arms make the impossible embrace - shadow
One motion left to drop the veil
Rebellion lets us make our only code

~
Skin finds its shape beneath the fallen veil
The tongue speaks freely what was once a shadow
Nothing left unsaid - the code, the avowal