Strangled

Mist steals over me
Clouds worm into my nose
Cold is my cousin
Of my blood, my own

I once pulled a plant
Out by the roots
So pretty, so pretty
I'll keep it forever

I watered and watched
Watered some more
Dismay every day
I shook it in a frenzy

Panic set in
Will it die? I asked
No, said he with compassion
No, with kindness

Why me? I cried
I only loved too much
But still lay my plant
Strangled, mesmeric, dead

When love is unending
A sort of choking begins
First of the ankles
Moving north ever so slowly

And when it reaches the brain
A caterwaul begins
Incessant shrieking
That drives the unloved ashamed

I lay my beloved
Withered leaves blowing
Reminders of intense love
The embers of possession

And I lay down near my beloved
Unseeing, unnerved
Becoming one with the earth
Where what I once loved rests.