"Ruins"
-
Each of us is born with the capacity to destroy
A defensive instinct carried in our blood
Or perhaps it is learned behavior
So subliminal we are blind to the ruins we create
You could explode at any time like a volcano
Despite your peaceful demeanor
Am I your Pompeii?
Will you bury me in the ashes of our infatuation
Until I am preserved in time
As the aftermath of loving too hard
I can only hope you won't
-
We are stuck in a crack on the sidewalk
Resting between friendships and relationships
Either of us too scared to declare where we stand
Mixed signals is the only language we speak
Your eyes constantly land on my lips
Satisfied whenever they form your two syllables
I nod in descrete permission
Silently begging you to cross the line of friendship
But you only smirk
As if I am an experiment giving desirable results
-
I've learned you don't trust yourself with your heart
Constantly paranoid you'll hand it to the wrong person
When you hold my hand you comment on its size
Smiling as you tell me you love the gentleness in my touch
Are you assessing my ability to hold your heart
Because I would never let it slip through my fingers to shatter on the floor
But you are aware of my ability to destroy
-
I'm fourteen, I know not the complexity of love
If I did I would give all I had to you
For now, will barely mumbled "I like you"s suffice
The thought of your hand resting on someone else's lower back
Makes me fearless
That I would rather admit my feelings than lose you to her
But when I see you my tongue swells in my mouth
Not allowing me to ask you if we are nothing more than possibility
-
I want to show you places that hold my heart
Days of youthful innocence on the first swing set I ever sat
Or the path where I scraped my knee while learning to ride a bike
I want you to take me to the spot you run away to
Or the ice cream shop where you met your brother for the first time
Because if you are a volcano
Make me your Pompeii
The city that saw beauty, and passion, and the insufferable pain of love
I will let you cover me in those ashes of infatuation
A warning and a mystery
Preserve me in time
When our love fades I will remain
The ruins of us showing we all have the capacity to destroy
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{A/N}: Fourth round poem. The finals are on Monday against two others.
