He Feels She Has

He feels,
               she has
a hand worth holding,

he’d call her beautiful,

but he fears
                  but he fears,

she would reject him,

so he says nothing,
            
            and walks away.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021

We do not say the word love
it is ice we dare not tread for fear of cracking

We say:
Care, cherish, treasure, admire

To say love would be jump into
The fullness of emotion that lies beneath the ice

Wilted rose rotting in the garden
Winters approaching the ground has hardened

It’s cold and wet and the wilted rose
stands bent over in a lazy pose

Her petals have turned dark and brown rotting, in that garden ground

That wilted rose is all alone
hunched by little garden stone

No one thinks that rose is pretty
Stands bent over in the city

All the cars go past the rose
Watching it as it doesn’t grow

Petal falling out a day at a time
Wondering if that rose could have been mine

I never realized
How easy it could be
To lose yourself-

I stopped taking time for myself,
Gave myself to others,
Piece by piece.

Every time I put the puzzle back together,
Another piece was missing.
Or perhaps stolen.

One day I will no longer exist.

i keep coming back to you
in the same manner i come back to a poem i can't figure out

Loving you was easy
Forgetting hard

Never said
there'd be another
day.

They never said so.
Yet,
here it is.

Time tells
lies,
and truths go unspoken.

Unspoken
yet,
not unknown.

Not unknown.

Last week
was twenty
years ago.

Tomorrow
I'll be dead
of old age.

But today,
there's a chance
to change everything.

To change everything.

It’s time to cut the strings of you, I think.
I get tangled up and I’m tired now.
Just let me rest for a minute,
to ease my eyes and
stop my spinning mind.
But then I’ll get to cutting.
Snip.
Snip.
I can’t wait for my first breath.