apricots

Love comes

like a lioness stalking her prey.
Poking eyes just above the fringe of the parched grass, seeking. searching.
Target locked - me, the unassuming
gazelle
who believes that she has found
safer pastures this time, birds sweetly calling out to one another overhead
still lakes offer reprieve from the
unforgiving heat of the Savannah.
I had already dipped a toe in,
felt the reassuring embrace of refreshment lap around my
love starved feet.
I had already scanned for dangers - taken the time to ask the 'right' questions
to make sure that truths were precisely that.
let hands embrace one another
felt kisses on the tips of noses - actions proving value over lust
and the discovery of someone i could 'trust'.
So i stopped looking around long enough,
put my face all the way into the pool, drinking in
salvation that resides in the arms of the 'other'
to leave myself open
to the lock jawed clasp of impermanence
around my neck - jagged, hungry teeth tearing through
the last bits of hope that made my blood so sweet to the taste in the first place.
Like apricots.