Love comes from you. Not to you.

Sweltering in summer

The tide of August rolling in

Like a dream without the isolation of sleep,

And it’s easy to begin

Reflecting on the way things were

And how they’ve come to be.

I used to pour my pain on paper

And call it poetry.

But something crucial I’ve come to learn is this,

That sad eyes in a happy face aren’t poetic.

It’s

Tragic.

 

I let myself drown in other people,

sucked down and shivering in the brine. 

Clutching at any liferaft  

if only a bottle of wine. 

When I found the strength to save myself,

Learned to keep her dry and warm,

I set my poems to the side, unsure how to create from blue skies without the melodrama of a storm.

But today I’ve begun to wonder why I never wrote

The poetry I felt wrapped up in thoughts of you.

For where could I have found more art

Than in a love to come home to?