Oh, Make Me Catch My Breath!..........12

At first, I was relieved -
you hadn't had enough of me;
now I worry
the room I have in your mind
is made of straw

for you
whom I'd trusted
in my unseen skin
gave me nothing but the silence
as of indrawn breath
in which I grew to fear
we'd never touch again

and when I could no longer cope
with hope's elastic stretched so tight
that I might
be wrong,
was ready to close the story book
and not look back
I had to ring, wring out of you the cause:

the threat
which made you scared to be alone
in. The place you thought your own
to paint as you chose
become a shell,
with phone wire
live fuse to dynamite.

Then you explained why you'd not told me:
you'd drawn in on yourself, family.
Leaving me
out.
But, if I take huff, it will be an ill wind
that makes my heart homeless
dreaming of it's warm house of straw.

Like me, you put off
opening brown envelopes
in the vain hope
what's inside
will undevelop,
but, I'd never throw away a plate
just because it was dirty. You said, rueful,
you were a waster, but
I don't want to let this drop,
what we had break,

let me help
with the washing up.