Deadly Nightshade You Must Be My Calling Poem by Mark Heathcote

Subversive love what am I to you today
Am I a rainbow disengaged?
Am I the rain flowing into your drains?

The tear that once burst from your eyes
Swirled in your heart to no end,
There is no end other than to be loved.

Destabilizing love what am I to you tonight
Am I land stripped back to smoke and flames
A desert playing dune moving games

Ah, am I a grain of sand slipping through your grip
Am I an embolism nearing your heart?
One that's about to burst if you struggle to be free.

Love what if I shiver in my bones
Will there be any tremors or earthquakes
Further on down the road in the dark.

Will there be any thunder and lightning
And wind-whipping frozen hail
Again up against the gothic bedroom curtain glass.

Love what if I want you to blow my world apart
Will you love me when nothing else grows?
Deadly nightshade you must be my calling.

Oh, love and death is a confirmation
Of all my ongoing misery and blues
It's an affirmation I'm still alive and loving you.

Kissing you in a flowerbed
Shaking the dust off the architrave
Not the grave just yet.