and I will let you

reach in once again

and take my bloody heart in your hands

and caress it until

it beats only for you

and opens to reveal all its secrets

and trusts you with its life

and I will do this trembling

with fear

that once again

you’ll leave my bleeding heart

on a cold block of concrete

in the snow

and fly away

to meet another love

and my heart wonders

how I dare

expose it again, unprotected

vulnerable, fragile

but it is my heart, after all,

that won’t let me

hide

2004