For My Love In The Open Poem by RIC BASTASA

i love you
that is what you will hear
because i say it
when you ask for it
as a matter of
your daily
need.

i have long accepted
half of what i am
ever since
when light is vague
when truth is nothing
but an opaque
view of the egg yolk
against the
lamp.

part of my nose
is efflorescent
it shines when it is
so dark
like a fish on
a moonless night
on the surface
of the the calm sea

part of me is an
anemone
when you are near
everything in me wants
to close and disappear

part of me is your confusion
like the squid
jetting a spurt of
a black trail

part of me
is your love another part of
me is my hate
for this self that i wish
i have completely known
like the lines of
my palm.

part of me is lost
another part of me says
there is no way to find

i hope that 50 years is enough
to know that part of me
is unknown
like that part of the sea
unfathomable.