Want Explained     ~for Rob

I do not want to be on a pedestal

to fall from

my feet slipping

into stepping on your heart.

I do not want to be a muse

adored and believed

to hold magic answers to questions

my answers

can never satisfy.

I do not want to be a fever

of passion that burns in you

the flame dying down, flickering out

as time — age passes

leaving only embers of a dying fire.

I do not want to be a need

only to fill you for a time

the stomach, once full,

unable to hold more

is satisfied and the plate pushed away.

I want to be a river

you fish in, wade in, wash in, travel down —

I would be water that carries you with it,

moving forward

toward a never-ending sea.