The Way We Love

Love Breaks You Down

My little oasis
My starling blue
Heaven is a place
I'd leave for you...

We twist upwards until we become great vines and deep roots.

I scream with unbridled desire until I am washed away under the drums of the congo.

There is something wild within us, something uncivil. It bristles in the green trees shaded by moss and wide hickory brown branches, entwined in the overarching flow of life and oxygen.

Deep within, we grow. Time after time again, waiting to break free from the cages of our shelter.

I feel the flames within my heart bursting, like the red-breasted birds who calls the dew to linger, the mist to shine, and the rain to dry. Our hearts will always follow, never far from the pine oaks, and hallows.

If a watch ticks every second, in a soothing and symmetrical pattern to measure time, how will we notice a slight shift?

When the, "tick, tick tick" becomes tick...tick ti".

That is what change feels like. Sometimes it's grand and colorful like a Mardi Gras parade, but what happens when it's a small change? So small that we don't notice that our watch is broken.

I've got love on my brain, it's light like shimmering dew, but yet I can not see the thick vines, that grow underneath in a tangling web. I should have said goodbye, but strangely I have this feeling our story isn't over yet.

"Hey, Ed!" I waved cheerfully, watching him open up his station.

The morning rolls hazily in like clouds stretching their feet under the clear blue blanket of the sky. The sun is just warming up, breaking between a clear cool layer, in happy content. Today is as majestic as the maghony hues that I trample underneath.

His eyes light up with merriment, "Paul?" he asks in disbelief.

The old man has probably never seen me so chipper. I shake my head, disgusted by my behavior, "pull yourself together!" I lectured myself.

"Do you want some breakfast?" he offered, beckoning me closer.

I pause, grappling with my two opposing attitudes, "yes, please" I answered.

Ed smiles, "good" he grunts.

We walk into his store, it smells like coffee, a fresh brew steaming in its kettle.

Ed winks, as he hands me a bag of donuts off the shelf, "I steal too" he chuckles.

I rolled my eyes, "it's your gas station" I point out.

Ed sit down in the corner of his store, where he has two broken chairs. "I use to do this with Camille" he shrugs sadly.

I chew silently, his sadness reaches my heart and rubs it like a sore muscle. Camille was his daughter, but she passed away in a car accident. It's been five years, and now Ed has to grow old by himself with nothing but his fading memory to warm the empty spaces of where she used to be.

"You're getting fat!" I teased, taking away a donut from him.

Ed chuckles, his wrinkled face relaxes and his movements are as slow as sand drifting into the watery shores, "I'm getting old, son" he grumbled yawning.

"Shut up, Ed," I said softly, "your heart still beats, and your mind still wonders" I reminded him.

Ed looks at me solemnly, his grainy blue eyes, are covered with a warm and loving texture, "I need to start looking for someone to take over" he groaned as his muscles screeched like a blown out tire.