Penny for a Poem

Choosing

You've become my heart, a truth so stark, it leaves me trembling, afraid.
For in this love, so bright, so dark, I fear the price that must be paid.
Memories whisper of a past betrayed, of love that withered, turned to dust.
The scars still ache from choices made, by one in whom I placed my trust.
Now here you stand, my heart anew, a gift I never thought to find.
But terror grips me through and through, what if you too, choose to unbind?
To love is courage, this I know, to bare one's soul, to risk the fall.
But shadows of what came before, cast doubt upon this precious all.
If like the last, you choose to leave, what then becomes of this frail heart?
A shattered thing, beyond reprieve, twice broken, torn again apart.
Yet even as these fears take flight, I feel the warmth of your embrace.
Perhaps this time, this love, this light, will heal the wounds of that dark place.
So here I stand, heart in your hands, trembling, hoping, daring to believe.
That though the future's yet unplanned, this time, this love, will not deceive.
For terror need not rule this tale, nor past pains dictate what's to be.
In choosing love, though I may quail, I also choose to set us free.