July 2002
How many nights alone tempered my heart, made it strong each dream, a hammer to the steel each waking, one day closer to the time the time when the heart bends, flexes, parrys without noticing, without any change but your embrace warms the steel but your kiss corrodes the folds my blade has dulled and stuck only by your grace does it remain whole years wasted honing a blade too easily shattered and I see my fault praying that the steel holds knowing you could rend it and thinking, “next time it shall be a shield.”