What Love Cannot Do
by January Gill O’Neil
It cannot save itself when it expires
like a tire’s slow leak. It cannot bring back
the greediness of youth
mouth on mouth,
skin on skin, that gnawing,
that longing you carried
until the next time
and then there is no next time.
You never see it coming but always see it leaving.
It waits by the door, bags packed,
full of stones from your life.
What it can do is mark
the distance between Point A and Point B,
which feels like a galaxy,
every star you ever wished upon
imploding before your eyes.
January Gill O’Neil, “What Love Cannot Do” from Misery Islands. © 2014 by January Gill O’Neil. Used with permission of The Permission Company, LLC on behalf of CavanKerry Press, Ltd.,
The Vibrant Channeled Creator 