cutting great neck

you know how much
i try to love you,
and yet,
like an old twig splitting,
i stumble.

stumbling words,
swallowing each other
in a sentence, one by one
with unwrapped, blank lips:
another naked you
with a pair of typographic legs.

you know
how much i try
to know you,
and to love you;
(you know
my fears;
fears of words like
‘know’ ‘try’ ‘love’.)

stumble with me
through red forests,
with broken boughs
that we will shun.
and if we fall, then
our knees bruise,
our palms bleed,
and i
will rise
with your blood in my eyes.

blind me; until i am
as blind, and sick as
you.
then i will love you.

and i will try. believe
me, i will try—and i
fall,
and my knees bruise
and my palms bleed,
and then
i rise
with no blood
in my eyes.