Forever

xxx

I promised you forever;

Forever never came.

I polished and presented

My face, my words, my name.

You followed in my footsteps

Down a self-destructive path

where everything was planned

and my being was an act.

I broke you loose, broke up with you

To save you from myself.

You broke to bits, and broke the things

That understood so well:

The photos and the notes

(of you I'd stolen, for you I wrote)

Were burnt to nothingness

as if we never were.

I promised you a lifetime--

That life with you short-lived.

We lived and loved and lost

It all. You'll forget but won't forgive me.

But some years and tears down the line

You'll understand

My reasoning and why I ran--
"To save you from myself,"

And let you loose from my

paradise called Hell.