Unrequited love
needs no
persuasion.
No tender words
to encourage it
to grow.

Although it craves attention
it survives very well
without it.

It has a mind of its own
yet still longs
for approval.

It festers
and it teases
and it laughs at you through teary eyes.

Unrequited love is stubborn
and all consuming .
It’s irrational
and unable to listen
to anything even resembling common sense.

Quietly
living my life
in shadows
and always wasting my precious love
in all the wrong places.

Finding
a little comfort
in your charm
and some confidence in your flirtation,
it almost feels like I’m being kissed for the first time.

Misplaced
and tender,
a breathless rush of blood to the head.
Two bruised hearts
seeking solace and affection,
wayward ghosts
lost in a kiss.

Deep down
in my dark, dark heart
dreams suddenly dare to breathe,
and in these stolen moments with you
it feels like love is possible again.

My soul soars.
The violent screams inside my head
turn to delicate whispers.
Hope floats
on gossamer wings
And I am flying.

If I let down my guard
and I say yes,
will you let me down?

If I open up my heart
and I let you in,
will you break it?

If I allowed it to happen,
you could be the rain
on my face
and the wind
in my hair.
I’d go through a thousand shades of weather
for you

But I’m telling you now,
that if you let me down
and break my heart
I don’t think I can face going back
to the man I once was
and the emotional  carnage
I knew so well.

More steely- eyed than before
my guard will go back up
and my disappointment
will return
to its heart shaped box.

Dark clouds
will swell like a bruise in the sky
and I’ll be left wearing my loneliness
like a familiar sweater.