Your secret wrenched
                                              my breath
                    away from my lungs blithe
    their unguarded life

left in its place a field
    of burning pride, singed tips
of innocence i felt for you,     glowing
    flowers in the fire

    my stomach jammed with jagged
                    stones which ground and bore
           against themselves as if making meal

      all these things until whispers
of surrender contrived
   nests within the eaves
  of my torrid mind

and with it returned the ease
of a sleeping child.