Where love is a Crumb

Did I mention
I say I love you
Quietly, like a whisper
like a mouse
running across the kitchen floor
Reaching for a crumb,
desperate and hungry
scared, but willing.
Did I tell you
I melt down
When you say you miss me
because I think maybe,
you too are a mouse
and are only willing to say
I am missed-
because to love me
would mean surrender
and you are done
with giving way,
but are learning
to give in.
But loudly, I
call you beautiful
because I know
beauty can only be seen
in that which I love.
and maybe you
have never experienced
the beauty I have seen,
when your lips
rest in a smile
as you sleep next to me.
And maybe your first man,
will always be the one
you loved with your blood.
But I will settle
for a whisper .
As we cook together,
in my large kitchen
where there are no mice,
but instead two men
hungry for the same crumb.