Your Tempestuous Affairs

There was a time when I loved you.

When your name dripped off my tongue like honey

When my heart leaped out of my chest as your name illuminated the screen

Tucked inside my pocket.

But there were also days-

Bitter,

Cold,

Thunderous days-

I stared at my screen

and I couldn’t feel my own pulse.

and my thumbs were numb

as I entered the words

“I love you.”

I thought it was just the distance.

Like a Shakespearean tragedy,

The star-crossed lovers met at the worst of times.

I had convinced myself

If you were here,

Or I was there,

Everything would be alright

But the alarm clock in my head

was embraced by colored wires.

The minute hand spun anti-clockwise

and the second hand quivered somewhere between nine and ten.

No matter how much I willed it to move forward

it continued to tremble to a point I wondered

if it was afraid of you too?

You pointed your finger

with accusations of adultery-

when you were the one who fell in love

with your temper.

You became so infatuated by the way

it made your blood tremble.

The way it whispered in your ear.

The way it made your heart rattle the bars of its cage.

You beat your chest.

You shook your fists.

Your mouth transformed into the barrel of a gun

Your tongue was the trigger

and even though you were blinded by your temper,

You still hit the target

Every time.

Because you are a lion

disguised as a tabby cat.

You are the monster who crawled from under my bed

and tucked into my sheets.

You are the Incredible Hulk with a grip of steel

and a heart that burns from hot to cold.

But without it,

without your temper as your mistress,

you’re not so Incredible,

Are you?