He walks with a step more than man Bowing beneath the doorway of her room And when he speaks it replaces the air Like cigar smoke He urges her to sit as he lights the fireplace Though she is already hot  He stalks to her and his fingertips are rough upon her face And then he is upon her moving of his own will in great mechanical thrusts When he gets what he came for he is gone   She stands slowly with a gentle ease  Padding across the carpet  Careful to avoid the dark footprints he left behind She douses the fire And when she reaches the mirror with a sigh that is anything but weak She wipes away the line of soot he had left upon her cheek