Love as an Organism

Love as an Organism

by Alicia Millar

They say they want what we have -

as if we're some kind of ideal.

What they don't get is that we're

never the same,

one day to the next:

Today, I'm fire, and you're the hearth,

holding my temper in place,

channeling the smoke, which you know is harmless anyway

Tomorrow you'll be a cool breeze

on a summer's day,

I, the reeds that bend to your will,

and could deny you nothing

The day after tomorrow I'll be water

running places, not even sure where I'm going

except that I seem to find myself perpetually damp,

but I know that on that day you'll be an amphora,

ready to catch the parts of me that try to run

(like a river)

away from it all

I could not have lived with an unmoving, unchanging, unfeeling rock.

I could not have loved one.