If I built a door would you enter,
or deadbolt from your side,
cross it double with thick iron bars,
& lock me out again?
I ask because
I’ve long been taking measurements
& cutting wood…
I will not build a door into a room where I’m not wanted.
I do not wish to trouble you (The One I Love)
with doorways undesired.
This wall is thick, the doors just open into nowhere,
or open not at all…
Maybe I can build no more than just a skylight
through which the wish of hope might not even shine…
Still, I’ll cut & measure.
Perhaps, Someday I’ll find something Open by your hand…
or perhaps that, too,
is not in the future
…
for now, secretly I hope that Nashville
is a failed connection
and that the next
offers something real.

I miss you so!
Your heart pulse fails to beat
on my spirit’s lonesome drum
Your breath no longer brushes my soul
with happy peaceful hues
Where did you go? & why?
My longing is lonely for your aura,
lonely for your loving care & desire.
Would you not hold me
in your heart and mind tonight?
I miss you
as always!

The tiniest flicker of…
Fluttering ember, a possibly maybe might be Hope
Sparked for a second within my tonight
Rapidly darkened by doubts and reason
So many maybe’s…variables won’t align
There’s not enough time
Hope smothered by darkness of
“Unlikely”
No tears I shed as my mind sped to
“Is mother losing her mental acuity?”
& questions of “What’s next?” preside
as sorrow hides beneath plans of what should be.
So what I wish would be again slides
to despair…
Even if I am, you won’t likely be there…
Anyway, what’s an hour to eternity?
an eternity of longing

I know I don’t have you
but I don’t want to lose you.

My heart compresses and aches
and shakes and breaks
at the mere thought of pain too great
for you to stake your love on me.
The gift I need would make you bleed.
Yet shattered I plead for a sign, a seed.
Might even the tiniest sliver of you be mine?
I’m sorry! So sorry! How I stab and slice
with each roll of the dice.
You can’t pay the price and I should think twice.
This hunger is strong, has gnawed decades long
but you are far gone.
My desire cut you, bled you out,
Destroyed each last sprout of hope I fear
Only my doubt is left to muck about
in this drought of you.

Still all I want to do
is mend, befriend, heal, renew
Converse, embrace & always love you.
My chest heaves with a sigh
for drops of your love I cry
to know more of you, still I try,
I treasure your deep diamond core
It’s you I’ve always adored
Unsatisfied, I want more.
Instead all I taste
Salty tears on my face
and a huge empty waste
where you self-erased.

I know I don’t have you
so why can’t I leave this place?
I don’t want to lose you
Still

The last one
keeps being the hardest,
like if somehow this night
were the darkest

but I'm smiling,
I'm singing,
aren't we happy

I guess, it's just a mess,
and I must be wrong,
could you really let go

because I really couldn't
not for a lifetime and the next
and now
when I think, I dream

it's all just you and me.

Fashioned to a piercing Arrowhead…
Don’t “tough-love” me! I’ve heard it said,
A good whipping was proof he cared.
I’ve knelt in confession to prepare
For a switch lashing my behind,
discipline—“for love” she piously chimed.
Caring hearts don’t char their object of affection
Or carry knives to slice away obsession
Either love me tender, love me sweet;
or speak honestly—
you have no heart for me.

I’ve long believed in keeping bridges,
Building them, maintaining them,
Rarely setting them aflame—
only the most detrimental structures
and even then with greatest care…
Yet of late it seems some pyromanic demon
Deep within my psyche has escaped
Wielding a fiery weapon haplessly
against these structures in my life.
Soon I fear all will burn
At my own demon hand
and I will tumble to the seething rapids
Far below
If so, I wonder:
Where will the waters carry me?
Who will survive?
Can I stop
setting fire to this bridge
on which I live?