The Blood & The Bones

we were both naive once
hopeful, trusting, unspoiled
before life, before death
before we knew any better
before the years became a black hole

and I often think to myself
if we could go back to innocence
to a time before the road was hard
would you have warmed my clean hands then?
and still want me with the same impetus?

is it for the better
that you can never know her?
never know what she was like?
that comparison and forcing forgiveness will never muddle the purpose?

that instead you met a girl
who had built her home
in the trenches
but do you understand that I too was small once?
that I needed someone?

maybe I am not callous by choice
but a wounded lamb in armor
who fought the wolves
that would not
be loved

and somehow remembered to preserve
what softness I could not exchange for weapons

and that despite what I know about survival
I still pray I will give what was kept to you
and learn how to stop using the other
against us

the blood
& the bones

©️thebloodandthebones