My heart's a little clockwork mouse.

 My heart's a little clockwork mouse.
I wind and chase it round the house.

The clever little thing can climb

and hide itself to pass the time. 

Sometimes I'm at a loss for words

to find it envying the birds.

Then through the dark and down the stair

it often leads me to despair.

It knows there's no one I will call.

It paces up and down the hall

and just to feed my anxious doubt

it lets its gearworks flutter out.

I wind, and wind, and wind again

and ask my heart where it has been--

but it runs off into the house,

my frantic little clockwork mouse.

love held back

i throw my love like a net

or pin it like a talisman.

i want to grow it around you

like a hedge or build it

like a wall. but what does love

like that do? smother flames

and stifle any spark of genius?

hold back storms, maybe,

but stop the winds of progress.

love like that is cryogenic--

it may halt decay but

freezes all movement.

so, i hold my love

in my throat, choking

on the powerlessness of it.

i swallow my love

because of how i love you.