my love alone

My love, my love alone
Sustains me - selfishly
Sustains the littleness of living;
Her heart beats for us both

-I still weigh a single moment
Against eternity-

A kiss in a crowd
A kiss that envies the meaningless
With meaningless envy

A kiss in wilderness

If not for the ever-presence
Of the past, and the future
Of the memory of promise

Her absence, I might not endure

I could falter, forgivably
Trade madness for emptiness
And be gone

-Where there is no one to forgive me-

In the beginning, and in the middle
The lesser of two tragedies
Is all my earthly breath is worth

But should my love, my love alone
Rescue me to peace
In the end, and evermore

May a breathless love endure