Love Hurts

When the hurt of harsh words
has waned,
and feelings,
flush
from the fruits of tender years,
emerge;
love survives.

Malignant memories,
impervious
to the cut of time’s scalpel,
seize my fragile heart.

You left me, dumbstruck,
by the strength of your silence,
to mourn my shortcomings alone.

Now,
somewhere between loss and lust,
clutching the scent
of a salmon-coloured nightdress,
I cry out.

Can you hear my voice,
or feel the unbearable
pain?

May my memory protect you,
on some dark night,
when you, too, ache for understanding,
to learn
the non-negotiable terms of love.

You are haunting my dreams;
conducting your spell from a distance.

A distance that leaves me,
weeping,
wanting,
and bereft.