Valentine's Day massacre

In those troglodyte days

Millions of years jammed into one

Clumsily I peeled off scaly armor

Bared my thoughts and reached out one tender hand to you.

One -- but oh so much more than to others who beckoned

Waving their arms as they sank from sight

Yet in the end

For end crept up in famine and fire

I see all my little kindnesses

Tokens of my faith

Were like the evening sun behind the trees

Illuminating for a moment

And then gone

Shaking me off as an albatross

You eloped

In search of

Uncritical gaze

Twining ivy arms

Adoration unsullied by thought

They lay bets, you know, on whether you will ever

Awake.

And I?

Free to see all that I pushed aside

More than I ever wanted

This twisted blessing

Solitude

I embrace

Wondering if I sipped from the same chalice

Would I have woken -- ever?