He casts a long shadow
In the darkest hour when he walks by my side
As I weep for another man
I steer us towards water and he sticks close by
Ears open and listening
As his heart opens too
And I crawl inside to keep warm
As outside it is cold
And the slowly curling steam
Of warm breath in the freezing night
Forms the backdrop to the steady pounding
Of our feet upon the pavement
Glistening under street lights
Where once a boy taught me how to catch my shivers
In the chilly early morning air
This man catches all of me
And sets me back steady on my own two feet
So when I fall it is unexpected
Even more so as he tumbles with me
And it becomes more like flight
He casts a long shadow
Obliterating the mouldering stain left behind
By the deceitful Piss
Poor excuses of absent men too weak for honesty
The warmth of his presence as cleansing as the summer sun
And I bask in the grace of those moments
Where there is the first flush
Of blushed cheeks and long humbled stares
And flipping stomachs
But there is also an insistence
A profound certainty
Of the monumental impact of this landslide of feeling
The landscape so significantly altered
Beyond hope of repair
But improved vastly in this new state of being
He casts a long shadow
In this revised environment
This oasis of possibility
And flowers spring from the bare
Scratched and scraped earth beneath the tread
Of his considered steps
My heart
This trampled and battered offal
Rushes with blood and starts to flutter
Fills up again
Fit to burst to the point of explosion and
It expands like the universe
This emotional big bang full of happy collisions creating new elements
Building blocks for life
He casts a long shadow
And I am grateful for the toes attached to it
Almost hanging off the edge of my bed
I am grateful for every atom from those very toes
All the way out to the tips of his fingers
And up to the reams of ideas
The words and the beautiful thoughts filling up his head
Underneath that mess of golden hair
That smile that hits me like a divine dart
And melts me from the inside out
Until I am a languid and luxuriant pool of water
Admiring the self I see reflected
By his estimation of
His insistence upon my worth
That thing that no other person can grant you
You have to feel it in your self
But it is sometimes easier to see it
Portrayed in the eyes of those we love
Yes
He casts a long shadow
But when I am with him it never feels
Like I am sitting in the shade