Benicia Love Poem: Harsh Words

HARSH WORDS by Michael Mautner

Harsh words from loving lips
Spring from the surface
Never out of the depths. 

Such lips know how to hit
Precisely at their target—
Ready!  Aim!  No, don’t… 

Fire…is the deep well of each kiss. 
Would that I had pulled those
Missiles back down into those depths

And let that Fire consume them
Once launched they cannot
Be recalled, I know; I must 

Live now among the ruins
They’ll have wrought, me and my
Regrets.  They are from my depths. 

I pray that you will still be there,
O my surface, O my air
So sweet, which to breathe too deep 

May sometimes burn
On the surface only
Never in the depths

The deep dark depths whence stirs
My love for you
Despite my words
Despite my sin of lips