I woke today to find myself on an unusual fence Looking down I see both sides If this were a wall it would be easier to walk There would be room for us all To gleefully walk hand in hand On one side is a love so pure, so deep, so passionate that you realize Until this moment, you have never truly loved Every thing you did from your humble beginnings to this moment Was little more than going through the motions An all encompassing love that makes you want to be a better person A love that deep within your heart you know, you are a better person for it Yet this love is not without pain, the pain of knowing You are not loved with the same capacity with which you love On the other side is a love that is warm and deeply caring A love that has let you find a way into their heart And made a place there forever. It brings comfort, contentment, a confidence That lets you begin to love again It also brings pain, because this love Cannot be returned in the capacity with which it is received. It squeezes your heart whenever you look into the eyes of this lover So much so that you stop looking into them Afraid they will glimpse that reflection in your soul Guilt saddles this pain because you know, they have Yet the capacity of that love is given with equal fervency and equally profound As I walk this fence I reach down and take the hands offered me in spite of this For love should not have boundaries, thus boundaries should not be placed upon it With each footstep, it widens to become a wall Hand in hand we seemingly walk in sync Suddenly the natural flow of love hiccups Dazed and confused Humpty Dumpty comes to mind I wonder if he fell because he felt he had to make choices. Making mine, I offer the choice to love and be loved in return in whatever capacity that love is. Love should not be spurned, for if we do we miss life's most precious gift As we journey along the movement of love changes I begin to see what I refused to see, what is, what was meant to be I begin to feel what I refused to feel, the distance, my own missteps Sea air assaults my nostrils, salt clinging to my skin like honey I forge ahead A familiar sense of foreboding permeates my being The air fills with a long forgotten song Beckoning me as it crashes against the sands of time "I am but your vessel As we traverse through time One that just rekindles love While never knowing mine I am the keeper of broken hearts Harbor for wounded souls Careening barnacles from your spirit The balm that heals the holes" The wall disappears into a dank darkness Our heartbeats obliterated by the creaking metronome crashing against the waves The cold wet steel of nautical chains wrap around me choking the beat of my heart Barnacles tearing at my soul peeling away layer after layer of my being My desperate pleas echo into nothingness Hands grip my hands anchoring me as I slip into an undertow of darkness Two hearts left beating are finding a rhythm of their own as mine slowly ebbs "First I had to die: Let down my defenses one by one in surrender, to that which holds me. Gives way to that which protects me. Each tear brings withering pain. Bittersweet decay lingers, as I'm drawn to the womb from which I came. Only then could I see Even in death there is beauty And only then, could I know Rebirth: Fervently suckling nature's breast, limbs take root to do the rest. In morning's mist dawn is waking, through the earth I am breaking. Stretching, reaching, breaking free, of the world confining me." Thrashing slows to a gentle rocking Lulled in loving arms I am delivered onto the soft down of earth My hands are filled by a love that has never left my side Bathing in the warm glow of love I took the hand on one side, placed it lovingly to my cheek Looking into the eyes of this love I gently removed guilt's saddle Watching our pain of knowing As it dissipated into the atmosphere With this letting go came a new love Equally fervent, equally profound Now equal in its capacity of giving and receiving Holding the other hand to my lips With all the tenderness and love my heart could hold I looked into the eyes of this love Letting that love reflect into theirs Feeling it quicken as it found a beat all its own Dawn broke the horizon bringing The adventure of a new future, a new day, a new love There before us were greener pastures Without walls, without fences Love without boundaries A new sound pulses from within me Simultaneously my heart beats in perfect rhythm To the hands holding mine Yet, my heart beats alone For the first time I can hear the beat Of my own drum