HEARTBREAK

"Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your heart or burn down your house, you can never tell." - Joan Crawford

To love is to be fortunate; to be beloved is a rare treat. To love and to be loved in return is a blessing. But to love an unrequited love is bitter tyranny; to love someone unworthy of one’s love, truly a misery. Only when one experiences this gamut of loves can one appreciate the spectrum of emotions that run from profound ecstasy to the blackest of melancholies… Here is a poem I wrote many years ago when experiencing one of love’s direst forms.

Les Adieux

“Drink!” You bade me and I drank down in a single draught
The glass you gave me, not thinking once
That the bitter tang of the wine was due to poison in it.

“Look!” You commanded, and I stared wide-eyed
Unheedingly at whatever I might see,
And even if the light burnt my eyes to cinders.

“Speak!” You asked of me and I told you all
The secrets that my heart dictated,
Not seeing how you had stopped up your ears.

“Hear!” You said, and I listened and felt your pain,
My heart writhing in pangs of sympathy,
Even if all you said was lies, and you were playing games.

“Goodbye…” You whispered as you slipped out secretly at night,
And in the darkness failed to see how I had been left behind,
Blinded, deafened, poisoned, betrayed…

Poetry Wednesday is graciously hosted by Sans Souci. Please visit her blog and take the tour.