Bettered Love Poem by Trevor Schulte

We lay there looking beyond life
and onto the future.
So many mixed feelings in me,
begging to be released on account of
pure pain pressuring peace.
So many unsaid words,
dancing in a self-made cage,
tamed only with my pride's overbearing voice.
I am content with the hope
that my mind has read your true feelings
and that I need not crush this potential love
that is unrestrained in my own eyes.
I know that this love pounds the cage;
demanding acknowledgement and understanding.
I, however, cower back,
with no intention on defining the true definition
of this extensive love.
This imitative passion dwells
on presumptions and a given friendship.
Why...Why...Why...must I lie,
and deny, that I die, in my uptake of a self-made truth?
Dare I? Yes, I venture beyond my self-applied boundaries
and stand face to face with a truth that I fear;
a truth that will defy all my presumptions
and smack me with what I dread to hear.
Will this bettered-breath utter feelings that speak it?
The moment has come...
my downcast eyes are furthered into my soul
as your words beat it with actuality.
Wait...but what is this?
Could it be?
A bettered love than I had built?
A more honest connection that can do nothing but build
a love stronger than all that was thought possible?
Yes, for it was this friendship
that had not yet been finished
that won our hearts, as the lie I built
was finally diminished!