when a poet falls in love with you
you can never die
they will notice the way
you rub your palms and look down
when someone is angry at you
and the way you smirk
as you pull away from a kiss

they will notice how you can't sleep
without your body touching someone else's
how you never crease any pages of books
and how you close your eyes when you dance in your kitchen
with your record player on

they will find all of the words
that they see you as
and turn them into something beautiful

people say you die twice
once when you stop breathing
and when someone says your name
for the last time

if you fall in love with a poet
they will never stop
mentioning your name
you will be alive
for eternity

Here I am again
in the thrush of
falling apart again
I don't want to leave
my body another time
It's so cold over there
the chains heavier
and seldom unseen
everyone pretends in freedom
but all of them scared
they see
their eyes
see the horror
they feel the doom
there we are all encumbered
Please I don't want to go there again
Please
Not again

A view of the ocean
reminds me of relationships 
I watch the rocks either 
being kissed by the waters

ever so gently
again and again

Or the rocks being pounded 
into a form of submission 
by an insistent ocean

ever so violently 
again and again

The rocks never move
The ocean never gives up
And yet...the rocks erode ...over time
There's a lesson in there somewhere 
I'll ponder it later...maybe in a poem

I carry on with my walk under 
the hot summer sun
leaving rock and ocean 
relationships behind me.

©Vivian Zems