Tag: relationships

I think you lovely
and twirl this curiosity
between stiff fingers

In another time it is myself
I would have twisted
to win your love

We can go a long time
each of us hoping
that maybe if we hold on
hold out, hold tight
then everything at last
will be all and right
This is a lie we tell
ourselves, each other
Hope alone
cannot get us home

This beautiful stone
dances on my finger
though we are long
past each other
I turn and let it
catch the light
to remember
what it was to hope
for a future together

What can I say to you
about you
without wounding?

My every word a weight
by which you judge yourself
success or failure

I cannot bring myself
to injure you
with what I think is true

Facing such profound fragility
and infantile defense
it is only cruelty to convey

How far short you fell
from what my small heart needed
all along

Oh, Sugar
I wish I didn't know what it's like
to love two at a time

To love the vowed and the dislocated
longing across distances
gripping the messages
from that other world

Belonging everywhere
and nowhere at once

I wish I didn't know
the ache of wanting
something different for your children
than you need for yourself

I wish I knew the way to be two

A wedding ring wields a magical power:
it can make a woman invisible
even to herself

You awake from a sound sleep
or a good enough date
with a perfectly nice person
and say to yourself:
I wasn't thinking
I wasn't feeling

You appear at my door
a little breathless
hopeful and afraid
not knowing if I can 
forgive your error

And I say

I'm going to need a talking to
a good one
plenty of sweet words
soft sounds
and cold hard proof
that it is in my best interest
to love you again

I ride home tonight
laugh-kissed and weary
after poetry with friends

There you are at my door
waiting patiently to persuade

I'm sorry I'm late, you say
It took me a lifetime to get here