Listen: I am here, hungry and terrified,
horrified of what I’m gonna say.
But basically: this thing you call intimacy,
I am just as scared of it, as you.
It’s not mere closeness of our bodies,
is it? It’s more the emotional closeness;
being open and vulnerable; that I might
hurt you, without wanting to:
that’s what scares me to bits.
And yet, I still carry on.
And I think you might be in a similar boat, so to
speak. You want, you yearn to be read
and be listened to; and yet the exposure and the
vulnerability are really hard to bear.
Still: aren’t these the things
which make life
and the act of loving,
worthwhile and beautiful?
And aren’t these the best and probably
only reasons that make life itself worth living?
When you read to me,
the whole world moves;
sparrows perk up and
even the glaciers swerve in to listen.
- For Lea