ways

i have hurried at love
as though it were a train
i was running late for
out of breath
endorphins churning

i have chased at love
like a hungry lion
leaping across a savannah

i have run from love
like the gazelle who
doesn’t want to become
someone else’s meat

i have pulled on love
like a yoke over my shoulders,
dutiful until the whip
cracks too much

now, spent,
a little wiser,
i sit quietly with love
as the mountains sit near
the sea, not rushing nor hiding,
knowing that with time,
i will feel the tide,
i am becoming the shore.