I have seen Passion Storm

and sweep away obstacles.

Did Romeo and Juliet's

passions storm;

such that only death could

their passions stay?

Witness raging desire;

hearts bursting;

love amok;

mouths rampant;

where loins ache.

I have seen these tempests blow

seating themselves

in life's centers

swirling down among

those of us who love

with every passion mote

we possess;

gladly we give it

don't we?

For to fall into passion

is to become possessed

of the sweet possession

that tingles the soul

and massages

all our secret places.

But still,

who has not seen passion too,

prove too strong for friends

who slept together for the first time

to find passion imagined

is not passion gained;

both then

sometimes lose

both passion's touch

and friendship's solace-

both equal sweet

to the tongue-

both bitter in the mouth's regrets.

Friendship goes sometimes

tamped down by passion's laspes;

trailing away in the misty past

'good friends'

making love receding.

Passion sometimes crushes

both passion and friendship

and these two hurl themselves

into the dark pit

where mistakes are kept.

Sad to have good friends

become passion's road-kill;

both lying by the side of the road;

still:

fresh quiverings,

while life's cars and trucks

lumber by

air rushing-

swooping both down

into the road-side ravine,

where they lay side by side

for a road-side eternity.

Ah, sad I know.

But who will

trade passion's call

and forestall

it's sweet voice

chiming?

Next time,

we phoenix-like,

grow new wings,

soar anew

which tells

us

passion is always

lifting its wings

and flying

sometimes too close

to the Sun.

But we

risk all again

don't we

for its call;

because that

is the way

we are built.