Love Is A Defenseless Child Poem by John Tansey

Love...
like a defenseless child,
sheltered
by the embrace of two
crouching downward, over it
like a cabin's eaves,

Should be tended by gift,
gesture, and the vow
of one hand interlocking another;

Should be nurtured, praised
and caressed
until rocked asleep, gently
in a limb-locked love
cradling dreams.

For once, having looked away
when it beckons,
tugging at our sleeve,
we look back, too late
down the years,

To find it flown, grown
and with it,
the marriage
we have forsaken...