Broken Into Tears

 

You trebled out the hours,
broke me into tears
with your whip to the grindstone.

I whip myself harder with despair
than you can with your insecurity.

None of my talents
are weapons or armor.
I am afraid.

the child with the soft voice sings
in the herd of wild hooves, beasts

who listen like stumps.
He feels silly because
their attention is important.

You've been given a cloud, a moonbeam,
forceless meaning where the world

needs rain and wants heat.
The bloodless heart can't beat.
The lover loathes to kill.

My most deliberate efforts are vague to eyes
whose arrows aim at the running prey.

You have broken me into tears,
shame for the man
gone babelike before you.

Poised at the pit, we argue the depth,
throwing each other's nuggets down to splash.