For My Love's Distance

“For My Love’s Distance”
 
The tides of dawn with their gilded breath
Roll only on shadows—only on death.
Like distant lanterns, the morning stars die—
But in their place, there is no sky.
 
I was saddened by your smile of purest love,
And gladdened by the illusion I dreamed of.
I turned away from the idea of your courtesy,
For I saw flowers where none could ever be.
 
You came with gold when I wanted coal
Alas! that your poison is less painful
While I take my flames and go to the Other Side
Where my faith lives, where my love has died
 
In the sea of imagining with the longing of diseases
And when I fall apart, you’ll be there to pick up the pieces.
But when your voice calls me from the depths of the dead,
I know I will plunge, for I’d prefer to drown there instead.
 
O! To be a plaything! To be beaten and battered
Don’t think that your caresses, so gentle, never mattered.
But if I want the sun, I must these flames endure
With such sickness as my woe may cure.
 
I grow weary of kindness and comfort.
I don’t want love if that love doesn’t hurt.
The smiles need tears; the soul needs to break
In the bliss of what you’re calling “Heartache”
But that I call the thrill of the verge of death
That gives my Lord and Love his strength.
There is no sky without his distance
No sun without a chilled heart’s resistance.
This love will kill me, ah! Yes. Let me perish
With he whose distance I cherish.
How I have traveled that terrain
In search of the beauty of pain.
This love will kill me, ah! Yes. Let me expire
Into seas aflame with my soul’s desire.
 
© 2022 Marten Hoyle