You sleep while I write words of love I keep hidden, jewels of no profit

–

Something happened

that’s what they always say

–

Someone

Something

Nothing

–

You cried once in your dream, I stroked your arm, but you didn’t know I was there

–

There’s a jagged chasm between us, of my doing, you’d say.

My behavior.

–

I don’t see the goddess; your perfect one.

I see the judging, the ego, the selfish,

the ghoul who creeps where death is near

who negotiates fate.

Thoughts closed.

–

I have grown tough. I have grown vulnerable. I rage too much. I weep too often.

–

And then, I meditate on the chirps of purple martins in the evening sky

–

I sleep alone, listening for thunder in the night and brutal winds and soft rains that never come.

–

And I do this

alone