You don’t have to be anything to me

Except yourself

Nor prove your worth to me

Except through your own presence

You don’t have to rattle, ramble, or rush

Through a thousand thoughts

Deep and provoking, keen and penetrating,

Yet cold and sterile

–

I desire your company

You, the whole of you, just being you

Not constrained and suffocated,

Upholding a scholarly façade to shield your soul

I see through to the heart that I love for its goodness

You don’t need to prove yourself to me

For I know you enough to love you

And that is all that counts

–

You’re driving yourself too hard

Taut like a violin string about to snap

Let yourself laugh without an afterthought,

Tease without fearing a back-lash,

Know that I would bring you no pain

Though your stiffness rubs me raw

And pricks me like dull pins,

Doing yourself more harm than you know

–

I am warm and impulsive,

Too quick to trust, perhaps you would say,

But I miss you in the quiet of my heart

And have shed tears for the wall between us

I long to melt it away like snow in the sun,

To bear your joys and sorrows,

So you’ll take it all in stride

And face the world

–

Let courage steel your soul

And break the back of warped illusions

Hurt as you have been, or fear to be,

You are God’s child, with weapons in your charge

Let your eyes look straight ahead, unflinching

Let the gloom be gone and learn to smile

You can do so with me

That’s the proof of my love