The Reflection Pool

you are my failure.

the bed of unlikely attachments
sits unmade, unused as it should be.
Through all the struggles that are on our paths
that don’t cross, won’t cross.

So we will walk, just walk, side by side
laughing as we can at life,
crying at the rest.
Lost in the vagueness of feeling,
emotions that tear apart
from the inside out.

Soft tissue dissolves, leaving holes that
cannot mend no matter what modern
technologies are in our hands,
tools that destroy in the name of rebuilding
when possibly all should stay in ruins.

Mashing up the pieces to recreate the whole,
brings about a lightness that only
feels like more weight      weight upon weight,
and breathing becomes hard because
I breathe you in but
quickly breathe you out again,
knowing that with each in-breath

a poison is spreading.     It is in the
veins and moving at high speeds
to my life line.
The steadiness of my heartbeat
doesn’t change.

I have the heart of an athlete, steady on,
steady forward as I grope for
understanding and forgiveness.