I Will Love You From Afar

When the cold wind rises
and cuts me, making my eyes run,
and it will not relent, despite my
demonstration of suffering, it is
incapable of mercy, like rising
hurricane waters toward an abandoned
dog left chained to a stake,
I will wonder if you are doing so...

In one take, it's like a little capsule of warmth
dissolving deep in my guts, releasing just enough
love to perceive and to keep me stumbling
forward...

And in the second take, the water lifts me steadily,
I am choking beneath the tightening collar, at the end
of the rigid chain, swimming in a frantic circle, with
those words in my ear - mocking me...