questions poke through your lips like
dew-dripped spring lilies;
your heart has known nothing but love.
rainbows carve up the sky at your touch
and the stars beg you
for one last dance.
there are many things you do not know,
like the reason ducks take off
when ponds grow a frozen skin
or why the sun goes out like a candle
each night.
these are things i can tell you
but there are many things i cannot,
among them
why the purity you hold in your hands
is not the human condition
and why as we grow older
our love recedes into shadow.
it happened to me,
it will happen to you,
it will cast the earth in darkness
leaving no light for flowers to bloom
in the wake of your pattering feet.