Just the Way it is

i can keep it
here
in a locked box with your voice
the key,
and it could be sweet, it could be
sharp, [razor-wire on southern fences].

it was never a question that i marked,
i didn't wonder at your pulse,
but the rythym of your beat instead.
that's how i tick, and i tocked a bit out of focus these past couple days,
inside, and it bled through, [stains on my plain-white tee].

i'm a worrisome sort that meanders in and outside
of the lines that i have drawn for myself,
and i keep the prickly bundles of my past
strapped to my back, [because i can't let go][i can't let go]
because i don't know how to unbuckle, and then i learn.
then i learn. you have a way that teaches,
like a good book, [and i've let it slip][i've let it go].
sometimes trading syllables with you is like a flash,
[this is an ever-blue wide-awake].