Water Wings

Why do you bring me flowers when we both know Their intoxication beauty is not quite as it seems The colors run, the fragrance fades Living briefly to portray perfection Only to have the life drained from their leaves And die in vain I can take these parched petals in my fist And squeeze them unmercifully into dust Tossing them haphazardly to the boundless breeze To blow away into distant memories This lifeless heart, though incandescent by your touch Refuses to become that vague recollection No more than a fleeting thought—on your mind in the moment Forgotten by the rising sun, crumbled into sand Dancing somberly in the whirling wind Although wise men say, ‘It’s better to have loved and lost Than to have never loved at all,’ Only fools believe everything they hear, And the logical mind knows ‘To have loved with untamed ardor and lost Is to never love with such vibrant fervor again,’ Call me cynical, call me contemptuous But I can guarantee, you will never call me heart-struck Or heartbroken I hear you say we can’t wade in shallow water forever And eventually, we must dive in Or get out and dry off But it’s over my head, and you can’t teach me to swim Before the current drags me under Talking you down with me So, I’ll sit here, feet dangling from the dock And watch the water stream by as the tide rises and retreats Because I’m not ready to go And you feel like home Maybe, on the eve of an uninhibited full moon Desire will triumph over precautionary self-preservation And I will leap from these wooden planks Hovering above the rippling water Rooted into the riverbed below And learn to stay afloat Praying you haven’t swam too far downstream Perhaps, you will witness this fearless feat And wait for me To catch up