J - I'm not defending things unsaid but you should know: Last winter, the kitchen got so cold that fruit Went bad before it ripened. My reflexes were slow, Crucial words slid sluggishly towards shivering lips, only crude Fragments managing escape. I wanted so to tell you how much Your freshly traced affection, stenciled on my skin, had meant To untouched sorrow; How when you saw me, holding the hush Of failure in two dozen dusty halls, all prepared for absent Others, your gaze was lightning to my unlit path, and every door You opened let in springtime, from unlatched window, flower breaths Of air stirred lavender in stagnant crevices - you were always more To me than convenience. Which is much more than I ever expressed. Tongue-bit by frost, I kept the love you longed for out of sight - And I know your warmth was generous, and I know it wasn't right.
~CRH June 2012 Note: Feel free to share my work with others, but please use my name if you do