Love Poem: For Other Ways

For Other Ways

Pack your smallest bag tight
     with only things worth holding
going somewhere you can be in love
     somewhere you can be lost
because the world is too big to have
     every idea of who you are
and every inclination of where
      It's mystery once you realize why

Don't hold close
     unless cold handed
with warm breasts—lips
    bury me in winter

Quickly things that go away
     go away like they always have
and these that stay go moving on
     and onward, on other roads
with you and I close behind
     We've left our winter clothes
for better days than these and ours
     we've headed north, you see

Promise me soon
    of something sweet
with soft hands, holding
    nothing besides

In beds just big enough for two
     we lay, we part for other ways