What you thought it was

I said it was not.

It was not a romance, nor a fling.

It had not even been a date.

Certainly not a relationship.

You claimed I had stolen your heart.

No.

Were I to take anyone’s heart,

This is how I would proceed:

I would smile with a hint of a snarl and very cold eyes.

Thus I give you warning. Best to heed it and run.

Ere you stay, I begin slowly.

Using my words as surgical tools

I eviscerate with sharpened terms,

Carving into the skin of your illusions

Until they hang in tatters from your chest.

I pause briefly to provide you

With another opportunity to flee.

When again you do not,

I begin the precise work of delineation,

To show the flawed outlines of this organ I did not take.

Foolish girl, to make such accusation.

Now you will lose it in earnest.

Since you chose this route, I offer no numbing agents

Delivered in honeyed tones.

Clinically I speak of how mistaken you’ve been,

Each description a cut that makes you gasp.

Eventually I lift into the air

The paltry beating thing and with disdain

Drop it into the bin of cliches, shopworn metaphors,

And hackneyed phrases that constitute cheap love.

I don’t even spare you a glance

As I step over your crumpled form on the floor.

Remember, my dear. You asked for this.

The story is told as a tragic tale of great love lost.

What if Eurydice had this planned in advance?

Perhaps she grew tired of his endless paeans and golden lyre.

His story of course was all about him,

A strutting man of privilege

Who bound her up in melodied chains

And then offered her to the world to see.

She found an escape.

(Snakes can be persuaded to cooperate, after all.

Certain serpents are said a fondness for honey.)

Carried by Charon across Acheron, the river of suffering,

She then made her way to Lethe,

There to drink and thus find peace in sweet oblivion.

Being the object of such trumpeted passion a burden

She could now discard and forget the life she had not chosen.

Then to her horror and dismay, he followed after her,

Seeking to reclaim his vaunted possession.

Seizing her last chance, she slipped away,

Knowing that in his hubris and pride, he would look over his shoulder

To make sure that his glory glittered back from her mirrored self.

And of course he did. They always do, don’t they?

Only to find her departing, but he could not forget

The brief glance of triumph he saw on her face.

She sleeps beside me,

Moving in tune with her dreams.

I rest my hand on her side and wonder

If she knows how with each breath,

She measures my world?

Before she came into my life I had no heart,

only an empty space filled with a few jagged memories.

With her arrived love,

And I stare into her eyes with wonder and awe.

Every day we toss the heart that she brought

Back and forth in the air with joy.

I’ve come to know

That it is not mine but one shared.

Our time together is precious indeed,

And I want to cradle each hour close.

Instead I hold these moments with an open hand,

A lesson she has taught.

In such acceptance of time’s flight,

Eternity rests.