And here I am falling in love again. Falling, when I’d rather stand—even run
Like Hell—anything but let my heart sneak out of my body yet again.
And yet here I am, without the luxury of recklessness
That a younger man could afford, and so that stray cat
Thought “maybe this time…” comes slinking through the open door
With hungry eyes.
But when has the heart ever heeded the mind?
When I hear you laugh it’s my heart that sings while my mind
Shrinks back in horror, solving syllogisms this feels like that
That ended badly and therefore and therefore and therefore…
And wherefore art thou Juliet? Or art thou not Ophelia
Seeing too keenly behind my best defenses?
But here’s the bottom line: Love is my domain, my home turf
I can’t not walk there, trip there, grasp and lose my grip there.
So how to walk the streets and bare my chest and call the arrows
Down upon my open heart again? And again?
How to love like a ship on a storm-tossed sea,
Stretching out my hand to hail the tempting cove,
But no longer casting lines to moor like
expectations on another Lover’s soul?
How to love you and her and him and them and always
Always fill my sails with Me, and let the currents of my life
Still steer a Me whose open heart can bear the rain,
Whose sea legs do not wobble, do not buckle, do not fall?
Why do we have to fall in love, like a muddy puddle?
Why not lean back into love which rises up like grace
To hold us up? Why not BE in love with ourselves and
Open arms enough to share that love with those who
Know how to hold a frame and dance with us?
Care to dance?
Maybe this time…
