I wake up, sometimes
Next to you
I know you know
The feeling there

I run my hands
along your chest
And smiling back
I know you stare

But you won't express
in words; I know
Because it's like I've known you years
You'd never say 'I love you so'
For you that seems too hard to bear

I do not mind;
I simply know
The feeling present
When I'm there

It's in the acts
You tend to show
A love that makes me sure
We share

But
When you've lost
And when you're scared
or I have no way
To show I care
I'd love to say
'I love you so'
If they weren't words
You'd hate to hear

I've been set free
Into this new existence
My room quiet and lame
As I fill the distance

With pictures, presents
Memories and thoughts
Fragments of moments with you
I've almost caught

But you, beyond the picture
Beyond my laptop screen
Are hidden from me
And all I see

Is the space between us
These mazes lined up to block my favourite view in the world.

I can't reach you with my fingers
And I can't feel you smile in my sleep

But if I could, I would
Wrap you in my covers
And lie with you
In this bed I've made for us.

A mouths fixed curvature is
dishonestly deceiving,
The truth eyed in retinas
beaming a darker side.

Worn in charades to conceal
authentic feeling a mask,
contorted pleasure in its
fraudulent extortion.

Smile in artificial laugh
eyes are mocking with disdain.
Malice in stiff mouths facades.
a cardboard mask is worn

Irises in verity
cannot conceal a nature,
smirking in honest contempt,
a grin harbouring a soul.



©Jacqui Slade