boundaries

I expect perfection of myself 

but forgive so much of others.  

Some say they feel complete 

when someone else is so impacted by their existence 

that the absence is irrevocable, 

unrecoverable.  

In my isolation and fear 

of old scars being reopened, 

am I ever assigned to failure as a human being?  

Am I too frigid to ever be warmed 

with the lick of flames again?

Where is that thin line

between personal and partnership growth,

alone or side-by-side?

Lost in the struggle, I sleep uneasily,

dreaming of togetherness

without fear of boundaries.

potential energy

My bones are shattered 

with hairline fractures

from the force of your blows. 

You allowed yourself 

to become encapsulated 

in the fear of happiness 

and left both of us broken.  

I wonder sometimes if you miss me.  

If I’m being honest, 

I think I only really miss the idea of you.  

You accepted 

the humanity within me, 

though it didn’t truly blossom until your 

withering.  

I imagine 

a more beautiful manifestation of you 

on occasion, 

when I think of union and warm touch and tingling skin.  

You were a furnace 

that ran out of fuel.  

But I still miss 

the promise of you.  

I imagined you truly saw me 

in your crisp 20/20.  

But I think you really only saw 

a dream of your own conjuring.