What invisible tails follow us around
lurking in the corner, trying not to be seen?
To act as a hero is to make the other a victim
To act the victim is to live searching for a hero.
We do ourselves a disservice when we
pretend our love isn’t shadowed by the
threat of losing it—
that our gentleness
hasn’t known hatred or violence.
That our tending has never known hopeless despair.
To each there is an opposite,
and they ring as bells struck together,
a subtle chord barely decipherable
to the untrained ear.
Mind the hidden ones.
When your life is consumed that
Big One, lean in closer—
and closer again until you see
the foot prints of
its unborn twin
dancing in the
tingling flesh
of its agéd arm.
The numb hand you were told to ignore.
What else do we call in when we call in love?