Love Poem: Not Wearing Glasses
John Heck Avatar
Written by: John Heck

Not Wearing Glasses

I walk through thin veils
of colored light and carefully
tread upon gleaming shards 
of precious glass -
broken and neatly scattered 
upon arctic bathroom tiles.

Each sliver reflects
a single piece of your 
perfect anatomy.
An arm, a leg, an eyeball -
a swollen horizontal speck
perceiving a soloist’s surrender 
outside a witch’s mirror.

I cried your name 
in between
loathsome waves of solitude 
this past weekend -
weightless letters floating 
above my bleeding passion
like starved vultures 
gleaning over carrion.

Did you know the affection 
I’ve smothered you with
these past thirty years 
is beginning to smell 
like dirty nylon socks?
I use them now to 
dampen my bloated eyes.

You're fitly ignorant 
of my extended limbs 
and repressed sorrows.
They covet apparel
not filamented with
fleece and falsities.
Your rehearsed kisses 
are dressed in dull razors -
rendering my lips 
gauged and coarsely 
cracked.

I took a shotgun 
to the nightlight last evening
and prayed as I reached for you 
through strands of tattered muslin.
I was hoping to grasp
a parcel of your fading glint
and humbly touch 
your jagged aura -

I foolishly cut my hands.