And All at Once...Nothing

I waited for you on knees full of embers
stuffing hot coals in my mouth
to feel the burn of your sadness.
To compare daisies to our meeting
is like comparing dung with the sky:
wasteful and inhumane.


I have waited for many things in my life.
Waited on drops fallen from your eyelids,
Waited on smoke to curl from the ends of your toes,
catching fire to the coattails of youthful passion,
waited, heart rising up to mouth to make love with
only your name on my lips,


because you were all there was.


I have waited for many things.


And yet,
I have never known a hurt so profound
as stepping into your embrace and feeling
nothing and everything at once,


knowing it cannot/will not last.