She kept the bouquets
Given in bloom
Before reverence was a ghost
Rancid lilies
On the bedside table
Patronizing her
With their shelf-life devotion
“Never again will I love,” she proclaimed
“Never again will I give,” she explained
“Never again will I chase the chaser”
“Stroke the ego”
“Be led by reins made from frays of detachment”
She told herself
Life was brilliant, easier
When she kept her heart guarded
Though at the point of sale
She didn’t buy
What she was pushing
Yet she existed without living
Thought without reasoning
Reached for tomorrow
Inside ancient history
Plagued by its confines
As the floor met the ceiling
And the walls closed in
She took to sand and sea
Cloud gazing in the dunes
Spongy beds beneath her spine
Bursts of freckles just a sun-kiss away
As she finally came to
Her fractured fairytale
Still pierced her mind
But its jabs were brief
And its frequency was fading
Oh, but she was slow
To usher in…him
A knight without the armor
Bold and uninvited
Extracting her from that comfy corner
Of complacency
She took his attention
With a side of suspicion
Despite emotions upending
Without permission
Blending then curving
In all directions
Ah, but it felt too good
Too rare
Too risky
Too scary
Too much
Too fast
Too soon
She charted an escape
A path to resistance
Right there for the taking
She clung to it
Bathed in it
Slept in it
Woke to it
Gorged herself on it
And wore it
Like a second skin
But damn
If he wasn’t persistent
And beautiful
And so easy to adore
But surely
Her surrender
To that exquisite ache
Adhering to her frantic pulse
Was merely a prelude
To a greater pain to come?
No
Yes
Predictions were tangled
And often convoluted
So she took a leap of fate
For this joy was worth
Every maybe
When he showed her the stars
She was infinite
When he opened his arms
She fell home
When he pulled her close
Her body remembered
What she told it to forget
Its artful formation
Both courageous and kind
When he held out his heart
She slipped it on for size
Its perfect fit
Impossible to ignore
And when she let out her crazy
He took out his scars
And when she let down her hair
He caught all her fears
And when he kept coming back
She stopped asking why
And when he loved her
She loved him more
Copyright © S. A. Healey
