My Sheltered Heart Poem by Steven S. Walsky

I took my love for you
down from the storage closet shelf
the place in the spare bedroom that lingers
in darkness
lingers like the room itself
waiting for a visitor, waiting to be used

Surprising how many memories
have long came to rest upon it;
it, a fitting word
a oneness that defines abstraction
removing substance from existence;
it, a description so less comforting than
the proverbial old friend

No friend this love
once called everlasting
if only as a ploy
a ploy deceiving my sheltered heart
a trick on myself
eternal hope replacing your soft lips

And when the dust of ageless tears
rose up
I realized how many synonyms
of loneliness had just passed before my eyes

(Copyright Steven S. Walsky 2008)