I held my breath the other day
To see if I could keep it forever.
I held my breath to see if I may
Hold you in me just for forever.

I inhaled you like smoke
Letting you spread through me,
Drinking from my pipe of
Those moments spent in love
With you. You were a sweet
Burning in me.
Awaiting only the time we would meet,
And I would be with you, you see.

But I was drowning in you.
Lungs burning,
Your sweetness killing me–slowly.
I need to let go, but I need you too.

With a heavy heart, I release you from me.
I exhale you, and I breathe in reality.
Because keeping you is toxic–
A captive bird dies,
But in me still, I can see your eyes.

You were like a breath, in a way.
As soft as the wind.
As redolent as the smell of roses
In spring. And as gone as yesterday.
You were like a breath.

And yes, I still love you darling.
I love you to death.

He was limp
And small.
Smaller than I remember
But I remember
Clear as day
When I held him for the first time.

The coarse fur scratched my skin
And reminded me
That gentle things have
A roughness
About them.

The heart that pounded in his chest
Was one that would remind
Me what life sounded like
When my own
Was
Very
Nearly
Silent.

His eyes were endless
And a thousand souls could have found
A home within them.
But he just had one.
And the one he had,
It was plenty enough.

I sift my fingers through the
Coarse
Gentle fur
Across the hollow and
Silent ribs.
Unashamed at the wetness
Of my cheeks.
With these words, over and over,
In my head.

You wonderful creature.
You beautiful, beautiful beast.

I thought I could hold onto you,
That the emptied hallways
Of my mind
Would be perfectly,
Deeply
And eternally
Engraved
With every detail of
You.

But now you're fading
Faster than winter's sunset
From a frost-wearied body.

And all I can remember
Is the feeling of
Your heartbeat against my cheek
And your gentle lion's eyes.

I want to be held
The way a dying hand
Holds a crucifix

I want someone to look into my eyes
The way a captain
Looks at a compass

Maids, not to you my mind doth change;
Men I defy, allure, estrange,
Prostrate, make bond or free:
Soft as the stream beneath the plane
To you I sing my love's refrain;                                  
Between us is no thought of pain,
Peril, satiety.

Soon doth a lover's patience tire,
But ye to manifold desire
Can yield response, ye know
When for long, museful days I pine,                          
The presage at my heart divine;
To you I never breathe a sign
Of inward want or woe.

When injuries my spirit bruise,
Allaying virtue ye infuse                                            
With unobtrusive skill:
And if care frets ye come to me
As fresh as nymph from stream or tree,
And with your soft vitality
My weary ***** fill.

They married in secret,
perhaps in some haste.
They longed to be one
having tired of the chaste.

Donne's employer was furious
and he threw them both out.
Donne did his niece
but neglected accounts.

The two lovers suffered ,
due to tightness of purse.
When you marry a poet-
plan on better or verse.