Love Poem #6

Ill let you in my garden

and trust you’ll step with care

Make sure to speak gently

for my heart I’ve buried there

I fear you’ll look in the alcoves

where her beauty is bespoke

I’ve foolishly waited on the rain

but the weather never broke

All the more, she is willful

the flowers grow despite

A painful kind of strength

Seeking refuge in the night

The harvest is my offering

In exchange for your calm

So I grew you a bouquet

to feel my weight in your palm

You spent long days in my garden

Tending to the soil

Pruning back my foliage

Your loyalty a toil

But still I rest uneasy

My petals turn to decay

seasons are unrelenting

And I can no longer delay

Bouquets keep well when dried

You can hang me from a splinter

I wish we could live in spring, my love

But I must recede for the winter