My warm breath pierces the cold air
As I blow longing into a you
Who's not really there.

Roses are red
Violets aren't blue
This is a Valentine's
Poem for you

Your subtle smiles
Your sound advice
I can't find anything
To say about your eyes

Your love for books
Your fondness for novelty
At the top of my mind
Is your streak of spontaneity

How you know when to speak
How you shamelessly stare
How like the wandering wind
You're neither here nor there

I like your propriety
And your occasional cheek
Not to mention my dear
You're just as much of a geek

The way you cheer
At the scoring a goal
The way you cheer
At the end of a play
The fact that both cheers
Are cheered the same way

How your fingers dance
Upon any sturdy surface
How you predict the song
That's been left in my head
How when I look at you
"All the world drops dead".

This one is for him
who does not yet exist
I wonder if you realised
This was a sly sort of list

If the poem fits
Then what more can I say
But my love, my light
Happy Valentine's Day.

Cradle me into a painless sleep/Let's drift back to the road we were on/I want to hear our voices the way they were before/weaved together in perfect harmony/Those summer nights that melted into one/endless toast to freedom, love and spontaneity/Hand in hand and heart to heart we are not afraid/to open our eyes again to the dark/to the consuming hurt that breathes time and loneliness/Forcing what is wrong/for far too long/Let's wake up and dream one last time/And this time I'll hold my breath/and you'll hold me/

In all propriety and sobriety
We nod our heads and shake hands
In a secret exchange of vows
That holds its place amongst
The whisperings of the willows
The depths of our disaster.
We've signed our names with
Small glances and quiet words
That pierce the night with their
Careful intentions and unimplied connections
Nobody wants to be the first to concede.
Nobody wants to take the first leap.

I'm having what I call an avalanche tonight.
When it all comes tumbling down
And engulfing me till I can't breathe
I don't even know what's come over me.
Or when it began
Or who caused it.

But I know that I would gladly climb back up
to the top of this mountain
and experience it
all over
again.

If it meant that I would feel this exhilaration
This joy this pain this woe this ache this high
This love.

All over again.

I'm having what I call an avalanche tonight.

I shouldn't have cried this hard but I did.
I shouldn't have kept this quiet but I did.
It shouldn't have hurt this much but it does.
I should've been stronger but I'm not.

First petal.
Browning and creased
Flawed, to say the least.
A victim of time.
Plainly visible for all.
To admire.
To abhor.

Second petal.
Smoother, whiter.
With a hint of warmth.
My lingering touch
Soundlessly penetrates
Your faceless mask.
I left my mark.

Third petal.
Perfectly encrypted
From everyone but me.
Every line traceable
Every blemish shown
Every part of you
Known.

Last petal.*
Purest, untainted
You guarded it to your best.
But like the rest,
It withers, and is soon just a fragment
Of what once was
and what will never be.

The mere sight of you
And the bits and pieces of our broken dreams
Are washed ashore. Hollow, empty.
Come in with the waves.

The mere thought of you
And the faded memories that were once lost,
Hatred smeared on the sides, resurface.
Tarnished, incomplete.

The mere mention of you
And my face is irreversibly
Transformed. Unreadable.
Devoid of all emotion                                                                                                                                                                                    

The mere bit of love from you
And every part of me rips,
Disintegrating into unrecognisable
Ghosts of the past

Through your eyes
I see the way you see
The little joys that make you smile
The bits of sadness that get you down

Through your eyes
The world is reinvented
Wonders rediscovered
Love unattempted

Through your eyes
I see her.
A vision of perfection
Far beyond comparison

And if I saw

Through your eyes

I’d see myself-forever
Second best.