Let the tree rot

When a tree roots
shades and fruitfully
lives long and full
there also comes
a day when it starts
to leak life from
each shedding leaf
evaporating slowly
to death from its own
drying bark.

Such is also my love
for you today. This
love that I birth
with labor and care
is rotting in my own tears,
weeping its own death,
evaporating painfully
slow through my pores
as I let it shed its
hold on life and me.