When rules of love are broken

hammered and torn into fragments

distorted from personal sorrow

they lie desperate and alone where

…nothing else matters

When I recall the painful past

of bent and broken chairs 

the same chairs that tried to keep you there

you…sitting…there

…darkly handsome with perfect posture

I can feel your drumming heartbeat

my wanting to touch and be touched 

Oh how I drank your lies

while sensations swirled in hot dust

… blindly settling into corners 

Naught else heard or felt or known

as I floated in the currents of your promises

it’s only the strong and wise who find

their way home where summer dresses hang 

…in the closet next to winter coats

I toy now with a fragile resolve 

to create a place to land undamaged 

a place to rest, to please

to will, and to allow 

…your hand to press my soft and tender thigh

I ask for your lips to find mine

whisper again your surgery stories 

persuade me to love you anew

with your honey on my tongue

…in full measured spoons