PROMISE

In exchange for your vulnerability

I promise the invincibility

of my empathy.

In exchange for your openness

I promise forgiveness

for our humanness.

In exchange for your bravery

I promise you may undress me

with equal sensitivity.

In exchange for our nakedness

I promise to witness

all of your madness

and love you.

Love you

in rhythm and chaos,

discord and resonance,

through every fallen fruit

on every forbidden tree

and every snake bite

piercing through our human skin

burning through veins of ancient sin

and arteries bursting with wrong and right

to deliver our woundedness into the light

of our promise to love

through the darkest of nights

when all true lovers

reach new heights.