Love Poem for No One

Like the delicate bud of a flower,
I come to you in a slow unfolding
of carefully coiffed layers

white petals of skin
                                separate,
                 fall away,
slowly
                 cascade
                                to the ground,
                                collect at my
                                                         feet.

I stand here, bare
in my verses and freckles and
pictures of my penance,
for forgetting - before -

to live in
               the poetry
               the unknown,
               
for forgetting to take flight.

Now, with wings, with reminders,
I am ready to
                      love (maybe)

lightly
longingly

like a bird
nesting, flying, returning

free
        where I choose to be.