Follow your heart…
What heart?
The one locked in that box?
Sorry,
I forgot the combination.

I’m keeping it safe
because i’m a pyromaniac.
I am obsessed with your flames.
Dowse me in gasoline and
snap that match

Poison is you,
you and me.
Light that cigarette
and let the nicotine flow,
keep me coming back for more.

I’m trapped down here,
too weak to climb that rope,
too scared.

I look behind me
& you vanished all too soon,
leaving me to find the proper branch
to spin up a cocoon
& wait
for something
magnificent
to happen
I think you are magnificent
but I know I shouldn’t so I’d better not
& I’m sorry the sun burns your skin
but your hands burn mine
& every time I look behind me
you’re always gone
& if I look beside me
you’re holding someone’s hand
but it’s never mine
& though I understand love dies
sometimes it goes on, hopelessly inside
someone like me
broken and battered and sanguine still
someone who anticipates her empty heart
to be filled
& I keep looking behind me
as if you’ve just slowed down to tie your shoe
but I never pay attention to what’s coming ahead
& crash into cars and walls instead

I could be anything the way I wish
A bowlful of food an empty dish
A blade of grass or a redwood tree
But I want to be the way you want me.

I could be anyone the way I wish
Furrowed forehead or smiles that please
A heart rigid or a mind that’s free
But I want to be the way you want me.

I could be a face covered with veil
A man of dogma or with free will
Kissing wind or a stinging bee
But I want to be the way you want me.

I could be the man I thought I must
Winner in suspicion loser in trust
A narrow stream or the boundless sea
But I want to be the way you want me.