I see and recognize your disgust 
for my desperate clinging need, 
my quickness
to laugh at jokes that aren't funny, 
my taking your point of view
in favor of my own-
yet, your desire
to remain friends
and not drive me away
completely, 
needing the comfort
and compliments I have to give, 
but not willing to pay the price.  
So, the fights
over circumstantial things,
and the making up,
but always drawing away
a little further each time,
like a dog growling
and snapping at my feet, and yet 
slowly stepping backward
as it barks. 

You and I are like the dog,
you with me and I with her,
and each of us have something to hide, 
a fear we try not to show. 

We rode a cracked and failing raft 
down a raging river,
white water we hit
drew us to the falls
with no time to turn back. 
We reached out
as hard as we could
to grab hold of something, anything 
to stop what was already happening. 

And now:
we lie exhausted
on the rocks below the falls,
with sharp granite cutting our backs, 
making us wince. 
We stand up,
and look at each other,
neither wanting to fend
for ourselves in the wilderness, 
or for the other to do the same, 
but not yet willing
to join hands
and walk downstream
to an ending 
neither of us 
are ready for. 

Return to the Table of Contents.