Risky Business

44 Replies


Risky Business

 How have you found your way into my dreams,
ripping my comfort apart at the seams?
I thought I’d escaped to back rooms of my self
but still I find thoughts of you stacked on a shelf
carefully obscured both in front and above
by other less perilous memories of love.

You walk nonchalantly into the room
that I have just cleared with a cloth and a broom
of other dangers and sadnesses not
knowing that once again, I will be caught.
Now I hide out behind walls at the back
where all of my worst fears reside in a stack.

Cowering here as you stride through the place
that your very presence has turned dark and base.
How could I have loved such a frightening soul,
the box of my heart turned into a bowl
with all of my secrets and weakness revealed—
things I now know that I should have kept sealed?

There you sit quietly, perched on a chair,
one hand on the desk top, one hand on your hair,
writing cruel words—I know about me.
I ease my way over, hoping to see,
but the paper is empty. Your ink has turned clear,
making improbable all that I fear.

As now I remember that I let you in,
forgetting all else in the charm of your grin.
The joy of your hand as it guided me sure
across the dance floor—all that allure
that kept me involved in the surface of you
overlooking the risks as most of us do.

If I’d had an x-ray taken of you
when our romance was shiny and new
I might have seen sooner your dangerous zone
and taken a detour and left you alone.
And perhaps now my dreams would be placid and calm
so I’d sleep without worry, sleep without qualm.

I might not have moved off to the edge of the world,
might still have been sleeping, never unfurled.
Perhaps it’s these dangers that make us let go
of all of the comforts of worlds that we know
and send us out elsewhere to discover a self
we’d have never found sitting safe on a shelf.

 

Written on the topic of risk for dVerse Poets.

44 thoughts on “Risky Business”

  2. Marion Couvillion

    Beautiful~! They flow out of you like water, sometime only a drip, then suddenly a gush~!
    Thanks, gives me something to think about today.
    SAM

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      As though we need those moments brought back to mind, yet there must be a reason for our dreams to do so now and then. Perhaps unresolved matters. I hadn’t thought of this particular person for years.

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      1. isaiah46ministries

        Judy,
        It’s like being stuck in a nightmare. Douglas and I have split the house in two, to avoid giving each other new germs. I just can’t seem to beat this thing, but I am, as always, hopeful, because I have lived long enough to know that this will pass.

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        1. lifelessons Post author

          Phew. All I read before I enlarged your message was “Douglas and i have split.” That caused a little flutter, but reading the rest of the message changed the news. Still not good, but not as bad as the original.

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  8. Ingrid

    A thorough and evocative description of the risk-taking involved in falling in love. It doesn’t always work out, but I’m sure we learn from it, whatever happens!

    Liked by 1 person

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  10. Sunra Rainz

    Love this poem, Judy :-). What a delectable rhyme throughout! I enjoyed the whole analogy of sweeping clear a room only for the danger of someone to steal in again. I also enjoyed and agreed with the final stanza 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Tricia Sankey

    If only there was an X-ray of love and we could see into the depths of each soul. But then perhaps no one would choose us? 😆 Of course, not counting the sociopathic bunch, I think it’s really a toss-up at times and maybe one guy isn’t any riskier than another. It’s all about how evolved each person is. I’m just pondering a loud here, your poem is so well written I will be thinking about this for a bit! 🥳

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  19. calmkate

    awesome write, we’ve all had that relationship with Mr Wrong! Hope your poem writing was cathartic. That last statement says it all … we need to take risks to learn and we all make a few mistakes beguiled by charm, a smile, …

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