For Anna Poem by Whit Leyenberger

Your first love, fueled by educated innocence,
Burst new into ionized air consuming all:
Awaited discovery sprinted past blurred doubts, pulled
Straggler hands gasping in tow. Imagine my surprise.
I was not proper soil, though I dared not stifle
Your verdant growth. I could always lie for you,
But I feared you wouldn't tell the difference;
My love the rain, your love the sea.
Love fed by scraps is the most pitiable of creatures
Forgive me for reducing you. I’ll be first to admit
I stoked your coals, fed flames that tickled my feet,
Enraptured, Envious of a gracefully evolving vastness

I love you as a simplest star swelling between lips
But I could not accept radiance I would never eclipse.