14th

Valentine 

With breathless, hopeless hope

I opened up a ribbon wrapped tin

Seeing within my own heart

Coiled in pieces like so many chocolates

You’ve torn open with your teeth

To see what flavor I am inside

Sideways blown even as I stand

Because sometimes it’s words on a page

So the rage doesn’t melt the candle

I hold so tightly in my bare hands

I need the light to burn on and on

Pain doesn’t mean I’m passing

Sing you say, sing me to sleep

But trust me I can’t keep being

The resting place for your destiny

The reason you soft shoe through it all

Hanging diamonds from excuses

A whispered noose my fingertips can’t break

Broken edges of thorny stems and petals

Sharp, twisted metal filling vases

The perfume of rosy death staining my lungs

I let go of these bundles and boxes of satin

Loving myself enough to say that now

I need nothing from you, February love