By Ali
Date: 2007 Sep 06
Comment on this Work
[[2007.09.06.22.49.1926]]

I'm Testing You (Because I Need You)

Words are everything—
everything I have to tell you,
to get to you, to get through…
unexpected emissaries
of some long-unsaid truth,
echoing the deeper parts, these shifting recesses
of my sometime-smile,
the one that sways just for you.

I’m breaking, baby—
dreaming beyond this moment,
stripping naked, stripping bare
many things (too many for comfort,
but even uneasy, I step closer to you),
practicing bravery, conjuring up
more than just your reasons,
my treasons, these fits
of unshakeable courage—
I don’t possess, I don’t,
but I do…

I’m testing you,
because I need you.  I need
to believe you, beyond your soft-thunder words,
beyond these whirlpool doubts,
raging insanities of passion,
and the pretty-made promise
of what-if, of more—more than this—
and my earth-quaking desire.

I’m taking the most fatal risk, now,
undoing myself
so that you can see the clockwork way
in which I smile, sometimes—
so that you can see the ethereal way
I tempt your recklessness—
so that you can see the fragile fever
that would overtake you,
if only you'd give me a reason.