Why I Love You

Knifed through with tales of lost unknowing Is a frost-thorned wilderness Where memories are cold winds blowing Their song, a writ of ice-scarred shards Jagged, the times they reflect Of shattered dreams, and hopes, and scenes Once strong, now pale shells, derelict. Here men of snow with tongues of glass Quench their thirst with my bitter tears And mock me with voice of wind and waste Bind me with ropes of lightning fear And scour my mind with eldritch tales Till naught but emptiness prevails. I thought you were mirage, then Till you cradled my reborning mind Showed me how to begin again How I could leave the past behind. Your river laughter gladdened me, Made me deaf to the cruel wind's calling And your soft arms encircled me Took from me my fear of falling. I would journey on with you I know you will help me see The path away from all that's been, Your company, my victory. Should you choose to leave me now, With you would go my mind's new sun Its light shows me what I have been But not yet what I might become. Christopher Burke.