hallucinated heaven and a hell of slow dying

VII

In the touch, in the friction,

in the nameless delight

of the ultimate caress

that empties out in the act,

there's a mysterious pact

in the delirious spasm;

hallucinated heaven

and a hell of slow dying

become one when you are mine

and in the instant I'm yours.

VIII

Even absent you're alive!

I find you in the hollow

of a form and the echo

of some momentary sound;

even my own saliva

tastes of your shadowy taste,

and in exchange for what's mine

you've left me only the fear

of finding even in taste

the presence of this void.

[Xavier Villaurrutia, from 'Death in Décimas', in Nostalgia for Death & Hieroglyphs of Desire, trans. by Eliot Weinberger]