Words require almost nuclear energy
just to be thought, let alone breathed.
That’s why I like to deal everything in
with images and say “shit” instead
of what I mean. I’d tell you I love you
enough to burn down the avalanche,
but that requires a new set of principles
in which to angle light into the room -

we have too much furniture,
too many places to sit and lose coins
and sleep. I get sleepier the more
constructive we get, and oh! to sleep
with one another is wholly different
from what we call love: it’s mangling
time into a wreath of twisted brass.

You have to give it back
before we can move on.
We decided to cut the ugly
moorings once we had enough
rotting dreams to fill the lifeboat.
We cried at the beauty
of a new landscape,
not realizing we had
been there before.

-C.S. Henderson