The poem
He loved her and she loved him His kisses sucked out her whole past and future or tried to He had no other appetite She bit him she gnawed him she sucked She wanted him complete inside her Safe and Sure forever and ever Their little cries fluttered into the curtains
Her eyes wanted nothing to get away Her looks nailed down his hands his wrists his elbows He gripped her hard so that life Should not drag her from that moment He wanted all future to cease He wanted to topple with his arms round her Or everlasting or whatever there was Her embrace was an immense press To print him into her bones His smiles were the garrets of a fairy place Where the real world would never come Her smiles were spider bites So he would lie still till she felt hungry His word were occupying armies Her laughs were an assasin's attempts His looks were bullets daggers of revenge Her glances were ghosts in the corner with horrible secrets His whispers were whips and jackboots Her kisses were lawyers steadily writing His caresses were the last hooks of a castaway Her love-tricks were the grinding of locks And their deep cries crawled over the floors Like an animal dragging a great trap His promises were the surgeon's gag Her promises took the top off his skull She would get a brooch made of it His vows pulled out all her sinews He showed her how to make a love-knot At the back of her secret drawer Their screams stuck in the wall Their heads fell apart into sleep like the two halves Of a lopped melon, but love is hard to stop
In their entwined sleep they exchanged arms and legs In their dreams their brains took each other hostage
In the morning they wore each other's face
This poem leaves nothing to the imagination. Co-dependent love is not healthy. This poem made me think of the movie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf--and the true to life strife between Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton.
The last line is a biting remark, but it is also a bit weak (in my opinion). Yes, there is an attempt to make the other person a clone, but it is because they do not succeed to the subjection that the "War of the Roses" continues. They never really wear each others faces because they just don't succeed in forcing their will on each other.