I was married to him
In a dress made of moth wings
She is more silent,
than the orchids of his woods
They would say about me

Oh
Somehow I have become lost
This will not be my home forever
I stand and watch the woods,
wondering what he hides in there
As he licks his fingers to count the gifts of money,
surrounded by guests I do not even know

At dinner that night
He brings in orchids that he’s stolen
That is what he keeps from me
The virgin flowers—
Their ivory innocence decaying in his hands
I think, I will save them
He grows them for his precious money
When I tell him they should be for love and beauty
How he laughs and scorns me

Why must he keep me here?
In these terrible rooms
Moving me from my cold bed to his
Bruising my weak limbs
I know very well that I have a voice
But in the awful dark of his rooms
I cannot speak
A mantle of silence burns me
And he puts his horrible weight upon me
And I dream of the warm orchids
Through the pain of this frozen mansion

Oh shadows, how I loved them before
But now I am sick of them
I long for the sun he denies
For it is ever dark here
I want to see the orchids he harvests
But he demands of me, “Remain where I want you”
And I am locked away again
His dirty secret kept in the depths of this mansion
Stripped of all I have
Except my desire to see the orchids

I cradle my hatred for him
Each night I nestle it to sleep
Singing it songs from the iridescent moon
And it gives me strength
As does the knife beneath my pillow

I will see the beauty of the orchids
I will take them back from him
We will go away, myself and the flowers
We will leave his coldness
And grow out of our sore bodies

It is this hunger that blesses me insane
I cut his throat
His thick, greedy throat which only poured hatred and lies
And I ran down the halls that have so haunted me
With his blood upon the white of my dress

The orchids whisper through the woods
Calling, come and sink here…
They are quite seducing me
The haze of the swamp, their sticky petals
Orchid milk on my hot bare skin
My dress sinks into the marsh
Slipping down my shoulders
I never knew the water was so thick
Will I drown here?

I feel that he will come
He is always near
And the orchids,
in their ghostly frailness,
begin to scream
I can never leave him

I want very much to sleep here
In the deep, murky water
The lull of the soil,
Sliding like silk over my skin
To die here, with the lovely orchids,
Would be better
Than to return to that prison,
Him,
And slowly die inside

Have you seen the wraith in the woods?
Sometimes we see her at night
Kissing her dear orchids
She saved them from his ruining hands
Oh, but not herself