In the cage of your expectations,
I wait with a gun —
Come get me,
Come let me out
Before I shoot
One or the other.
But I know you never come
With a key, only a lock
That snaps shut when I try (as I must) to explain
What you're saying.
You hold out your hand
As if to say you won't hurt me,
But somehow you make me hurt myself
Because of what you can never offer
But swear you are giving.
It's fear that draws me toward you
And fear that draws me away;
To never be without you
To never be —
The fear of emptied-out November
When all is still and all is in its place,
When everything outside of myself is purposeless
And there is nothing else.
