Slippery cocktail 
Equal parts
Foolish and brave
My invisible audience
Tells me don't dare
Taken aback by you
Yet delighted
Making something
Out of nothing
Just to have 
To hold onto
My magic trick

All that I dreamed
Became possible
And yet, I was
A fraud, cruel
I had wanted to do
All this with you
When asked do I still
Write every day
I resume to fall
In love again 
Need not be held
In our arms 
To be any less real

The singular purpose
-beers bars nights-
Spending time
Though poor and hungry
This love of mine
Grateful offerings
Not asking for more
Yet nothing else will do

Cold War
Shelves half empty
Company of friends
Hard and humbling
Long sessions of joy
Laced with sadness
Longing 
A decade of wondering
Ahead of me
Wishing for the truth
Holding ideal
Measuring others by it

Haters try to eradicate 
Difference in history
Hold onto belief
Not discard identity
Tenuous grasp 
Did we cover sufficiently?
Were you lightened
Or do you carry heavily?
If only you knew
How beautiful your
Spirituality 
I could kiss it

It saved me from wiping out
Faith in humanity
You say little with
Much passion
It is wonderful to me

Here, the heart of it
Finally

I love your love
Of everything 
I miss being near
Hearing it
Turning to mush
Ever since you took
Us on a journey
To the West
To the dunes
No control 
Over this

There was an 'us'
Just once it escaped
Your lips
Till you put it
Back in though
Typed into my mind

Thoughts of you
A warm blanket
I put it on again 
This night 
As the snow illuminates
Under a full moon
My eyes on mountain 
Looming over us
Yours on horizon

I could not sit
In the shadow 
Of past loves
Like Ossa in a storm
Slippery slope 
A snippet of things
I know
Cannot climb
Nor run away
At the base of
This landmark
Time in my life
I stake a claim
I write our names

Open door
Welcome mat
Room for you and me
To be family
One day
Set us free

Title:'The Love That Dares' Letters of LGBTQ+ Love and Friendship Through History by Smith and Vesey. 

Poem is an erasure poem from author's own.