Lily

I think sometimes
"Why can't you understand?"
for if you did you would
understand it all.

Tte nature of men
commiserating with the snow,
sensing the slow
ebb of their strength...

The nature of defiant boys
tongue-tied and shifting
from lie to lie
refusing to confess the sins
that cause their sadness...

The power of the complacent beauty
that drew me to you
and the stabbing fear that
there is no paradise but you...

The shreds of your mother's understanding
that words do not change us,
your father's silence in watching the melting snow.
You would understand