Once given,
a tender gesture,
humble, heartfelt words;
brilliant beauty
of dazzling hearts, Cupid's arrows
and
promises of love forever,
stability, security, safety.
Among of the happiest days of my life.
A symbol created,
to represent the best of intentions,
I didn't know all that would follow,
what would be expected of and
then stripped away from me.
Empty promises
born of your desperation
with neither a plan
nor the ability to be kept.
Your panicked shrieks
rooted in a complete lack of faith,
in spite of half-full glasses on every surface,
terrible-two's tantrums
at middle age.
My humiliation,
powerlessness,
bone-crunching exhaustion
in trying to head off the next
outburst
and the next
and the next.
Circles deeply underscoring
bloodshot blue eyes,
I admitted defeat.
Failure.
My inability to fill
the bottomless pit
of your need.
Cupid's once delicate platinum arrows
and elegantly engraved laurel
now turned to steel,
with sharp points
tinged with the metallic smell
of your faithlessness and
my heart's blood
dripping
from the jagged edges
ultimately proven
to be merely glass.
~ Mk Michaels
