Seconds

Guilt devours understanding.
We say love,
But we mean responsibility.
We say courage,
But we mean
How did we let it come to this?
Your eyes held me down for years -
Silent spies in your temple of
Burning moon and seething earth.
A whisper so soft - "please" -
I must surely have imagined it,
But it cracked something in me
So sharply I could hear it.
It cracked something deep and secret.
It cracked something.
But we are brave in our regret,
and we are mortal to the marrow.
I watch you pick absently
At your threadbare sweater,
The clock ticking past
Silent, empty seconds -
Seconds we won't ever get back.
Seconds in which we could have been....
Seconds in which we could have been.