Thursday, March 9, 2017

Open Arms - Beverly Koepplin


I hold you with arms so wide open
that I feel the emptiness ache in me;
like a second heartbeat, it is always there.

I watch you come and go, and I never say
“When will you stay with me?”
My chains are velvet; they do not hurt.

I count as lucky the days you hold me.
On the days that you don’t, I cry
but only inside where no one sees my tears.

If I hold you so loosely, so freely,
how will I know when you are gone?
Will my arms someday just fold?

Like broken battered wings, will they just collapse
from the weight of trying to fly
from nothing into nothing with nothing?

So, just go, while my wings are still spread.
Then you won’t have to see me
crippled and grounded by the pain of love lost.
                            ***

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