I could love you once then let you go
alive in a life I cannot keep
but I’d rather burn than die that slow.
Your hair, your breath, your eyes I know
from another time, some quantum leap
I could love you once then let you go.
A hundred years of wind could blow
the candles of the past asleep
but I’d rather burn than die that slow.
Beyond the meadow, beyond the glow
of sunlight brushing this hill of sheep
I could love you once then let you go.
The wreck of sex, the dive, the flow
into each other so true and deep
but I’d rather burn than die that slow.
To know you now, to want you so
I dream your ribs, your hands, I weep
I could love you once then let you go
but I’d rather burn than die that slow.
Lisa ZIMMERMAN
First published in THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF EVERYTHNG,
Anhinga Press