When Love Exposes Your Heart

When love exposes your heart

Your heart will in all likelihood

Get thrashed about,

It will in all likelihood reach

The near breaking point.

There are those who are not

Careful

There are those who may

Not be aware,

Of the damage they have done

Through their ambivalence.

One may be tempted

Not take the voyage.

One may be tempted to

Stay close to shore

Rather than risk the humiliation

The demolition that love

Can bring about.

The open sea has its terror.

Many do not return.

They are swallowed up in the grief

Of unrequited love

Or love that has been withdrawn

When, it was originally given

Freely.

Derek Earl Houghton