I think,
I cry,
then I smile my lies.

Cast in shadows, sea and sky,
Your eyes, lovely shade they were,
The same shade that colored my heart,
When you left with not a glance,
A cerulean gaze of innocent light,
Turned as deep as the foreboding night,
Tore me asunder,
Those crystal blue eyes.

You call me your dog,
your *****, your fool,
hurling words like stones
to shatter my heart.

I wag my tail anyway,
smiling through trembling lips,
fetching scraps of kindness
from the shadow of your hands.

You call me useless,
a beast beyond learning,
but I only want to please you—
to sit, to stay, to love.

Even as you turn away,
your voice cracking the whip,
I crawl through every wound,
bearing the weight of your name
like a leash around my soul.

For to be your dog
is still to be near you,
and I, the fool,
would bleed to feel you call me mine.

when your dreams
are where you'd rather be
it is time
to live them