will you love me after the end

Coarse sunlight, cotton shirt,
fistful of dates, bitten orange,
your sandals, my scarf.

Behind us
a room with a polished floor,
roses in extremis.

Will you love me after the end,
before the beginning,
by a stream of Nile water, bloodied by roses?

[Meena Alexander {1951-2018} 'White Nile, Love Song' from Quickly Changing River]