A Second Innocence

Beyond debauchery

lies a mute innocence.

Not of a child,

but of senses burned so raw

that experience is reduced to

the hiss of a dead television

and only silence feels new.

I’ve been a pilgrim

in the searing desert

of that soundless place,

my heart burnished,

my hymen restored

and I wonder

the purpose of the passage

if only to end up

in Eden

alone.