“You didn’t ask me for the moon.
I would have wrapped the world
around your shoulders. Harrowed hell
or pillaged heaven. But you assumed
I’d let you go, and trust you would return.

The hours between stretched
on the rack of your absence,
amongst swift talking ladies’ men
competing for your hand
fear shuffled in the silence.

Devotion didn’t cut me from the crowd
but love’s a cold and lonely place to stand.”