Love
you lie like a stain
on my face of
marbled feelings
I try to remain cold
untouched by
your passionate framing
unsure in my own self doubt
whether I am worthy of
any portraiture.
Love
you slip like a dream
from my frigid bed and if you were
a woman you’d be a woman of the world
Indian, Malaysian, perhaps from Istanbul
you’d wear bells on your ankles
and have hennaed big toes
and elderberry lips
and your smile would hurt
like a thousand breaking stars.
Love
you rest as a friend
on my empty shoulders
when I feel I cannot bear
another load, one more day, a single minute
longer
in this empty carriage journey
through furnace and fury
you comfort me with the leniency
of your gift, like a child who
seeing someone crying
will reach instinctively
and wipe tears away
with the goodness of their
pure reflex.
Love
you are crystal set against fading sunlight
on a day of horrors
you light our fire place
and cook a warm meal
you run a bath and dim the hour
until all we see is shadows
they drift without pressure
on warm current
until they become absorbed
in our evolving sleep.
Love
you rescue me from the edge
in a dream, you cross reality
and waking, I know it is you I have
touched and though we never have
the mercy of that tender hour
waits on me all day
like a balm, soothing the
years of being told
it is unnatural to feel as I do.
Love
you take few faces, you are once in a life time
but in each woman, I glimpse
a little of you
like a pinch of saffron
will go a long way
and a gold hem can
light up a grey dress
like an empty garden will seem
full when you visit and rain clouds
are welcome where we live
all year round.
For love
you are upside down and inside out
and love
dear, soft edged, warm necked
crossed limbed, laughing throated
cascading haired, chocolate eyed love,
you save me
every single time.