Another Day in Paradise

I dared to sleep tonight
Beside my lover
Letting callous be
The only protection,
The fragile sounds of sleep
The lone intimacy.


No softness in her eyes
When I melted down the moon and stars,
The hawk just fixed on what she could attack
In a lunging rush of air
Where the world itself stops breathing
And the moon turns silver wings that once were black.


A blue nightlight has taken over for
The distant, helpless moon.
There’s no room inside
Still I tremble as my words
Shiver through her
Without the least reply.


Once I navigated through the booby traps
To make it all the way to the top of the stairs
And I went through her door by the balustrade
And urgently flew to the side of her bed,
Waved off her fears and softly said
“I will sit here ‘til you are OK”


And I took my heart out of my chest
And I placed it in her lap.
The moon made both our faces blue
And she stroked the cat as if it was a thought.
I was left with that, so many years ago,
Alone with my love that grew


Always so much larger
Than any object,
And the people that I loved stood far below
Gazing up, not really seeing me
And I wondered then if I really had a heart at all,
That thing inside of me, too small.