Keep Me Quarantined
The heart is encased in a cage for a reason.
You fall in love and are fallen in love with,
and you think you know emotion?
There are days when I step off the bus,
look at strangers on the street and
love them so badly I can't breathe.
No one knows what they're dealing with,
when they talk to me.
They laugh and it catches in my mind,
each neuron sparks in applause.
Better to be kept a stranger;
they're only flashes,
don't you see that affection breaks me?
It invades my bloodstream, dilutes,
and maybe that's why sometimes I fall down,
I carry too much of everyone inside me,
I can't always find my own cells.
I've loved the world until I ached,
all awe and missed opportunities.
If each thought was a ring in your ears,
none of you could go anywhere
without bells sounding with each footstep.
Most days I can keep locked up,
but there are times when
each bar bends stubbornly backwards;
my bones can't keep me safe,
and I am all raw flesh exposed to the wind.
I love too much.