CXXXII

I check the weight of all your words
temper them out
wondering if the consistency will hold.
They roll off your tongue, and I balance them
on the scales I've come to know
all too well.
Do you love me, still.
Do you want me, more.
Do you need me, at all.
Am I only counting chances.

I check the weight of all your words.
This one a little light, a little insincere.
This one heavier than any I'd ever want to hear.
Will I detect it before you tell it?
That fearful fateful forlorn truth I search for.
Will I know it before you let on
that our time is drying up
that all we've got isn't all that much, after all.

You're bearing my soul down, you know that?
This weight, just too much.
Cutting to the quick of who I am
and who we are
who I thought we could be
bearing down on all of it.
And I can't let you tear us apart.