Love Poem: Lentement, Doucement, Discretement
Roanne Q Avatar
Written by: Roanne Q

Lentement, Doucement, Discretement

This is not an accident. I used to call him
a lazy criminal. Scooping hearts and spilling blood,
leaving footprints, fingerprints. Stains.
Eyes folding over -- the blindman or the beggar? 
Lips that blossomed into blueprints. 
Hands that rhymed with dreams, instead.


The weeknights, dark and warm 
in a season of curled paper.
No speaking -- guilt only follows
past the second trip through the door.  
And then the mornings. 
More sun in him than the greenhouse 
where we watched dragonfly wings. 
A pattern about him
like dragonfly wings. 


In those days we knew
what it meant to point
without wounding.
We knew how to need someone
without wanting,
without loving.