A Warning...

How does it happen
That a woman's heart grows cold?
How is she turned from a heart filled with hope
To a numbness to love,
No belief in its grace?
She seizes love's chance
A heat full of fire
With strength and courage she dares to trust
And is burned in reaching
Rewarded with pain.
She offers her lips
In faith's loving kindness
But tastes only the tears of bitter regret
The cruelty of betrayal
And unnecessary lies.
Cautiously hopeful,
So timid to love,
She patiently waits for the warmth and touch
Of a man who would love her
But he never comes.
These, and much more,
Transform a woman's heart
Till even she can not feel - and scarcely remembers -
Its once great warmth,
Its once brave light.
			--Kim Picker