Hearts Still Care

Tsunami

The darkness of memory
Isn’t always around.
It’s like being at a beach,
On sandy, yet steady, ground.

Then some thing makes me think of
What I forgot for a while.
I see the tides roll back far.
I taste familiar bile.

Fear and guilt shake down my spine
And I know I can’t take it;
I know, to higher ground,
I cannot hope to make it.

The tides pull back like a whip;
The birds have all flown past;
I blame me for being stupid;
I hate I couldn’t make love last.

The tsunami of memory builds;
I see the wall of water;
Flow in steady, like this ground,
All ready for a slaughter.

It’s blue and terrible:
Cascading like napalm screams;
All my thoughts, kisses and vows,
Wrapped in fear and betrayed dreams.

As it comes sweeping in,
I suck in air, my heart takes it.
The water bursts against me.
(While in real life, my smile fakes it.)

Was it all a lie?
I cannot tell. I do not know.
He promised he’d stay;
But then I watched him go.

Every flower knows,
The bee will return;
The sun can tell
How the moon yearns;

The shore feels the tide,
It understands the sea;
But these metaphors
Everyone can not see.

I guess I am one who
Knows the heart not his head,
Yet they both lie now
Quite broken in this bed.

Bottles of medicines –
Empty now and lying there –
The last of your shampoo
I used on my hair.

The black comb
You forgot to take –
The socks in the drawer –
Careless mistakes –

The pop socket broke –
We bought it, us three –
These little, last things
You won’t ever see.

I hold on to them
Like pieces of a heart,
And wonder when
The moving on shall start.