You were the first
And the first man
To tell me you loved me.
But I wasn't the first
For you

And I know
This doesn't make it any less true,
But your love scares me
Because affection you give
Is more flighty than the birds themselves.

Delicate, it is the birdsong.
And I cannot tell sometimes
If it is your song I hear
Or the memories replaying in my mind.

It is the doubt I bear like a cancer
That poisons my mind with fear
And unanswered 'I love you's
I keep my distance now.

I keep my heart safer
No more stumbling about in the woods,
Scraping up open palms
And the heart I so carelessly carried on my sleeve
Searching desperately for you
And your song.