i do not love you with oceans,
for deep below the surface of their waves
are monsters lurking in the darkness.
i do not love you with the sky,
for the pale of the blue above us withholds
from the endlessness before it.
i do not love you with stars,
for the glinting of the lights has died
long before it ever touches our faces.
i love you with what i have and
all that i am - the beating
and reverberating life that pulses
through every frayed and fibrous
part of my struggling heart.