A Handful Of Stones

My heart has been scoured

like the shore by the sea

The continual ebb and flow

of your emotions

has stripped it bare,

leaving occasional treasures:

a turquoise stone, green sea-glass

dull brown driftwood

all of them cold and hard

See? This is what my love

has bought me

A handful of stones

and salt-riddled wood

it does not seem to me

to be a fair exchange

After all - I spread myself

across the shoreline

for you to rest upon after your wild nights

and ocean gales

but you bring me riptides and undertows

that undermine my very being

So strew your baubles across my breast

and tell me they are precious gifts

from afar

I'll string them 'round my neck

until they are too heavy for me

until I can no longer lift my head

and I, too, become refuse from the sea