Absence

You caress tender spots

others have created

and I wince, withdraw,

wait a while

Until I offer myself again

with all my tenderness

and I offer myself again

And you may think I succumb

too easily. No, not numb,

I feel. Every ache, every pleasure

I feel, opening the tender spots to stimuli

Sure, it is a lot of effort

This inevitability of vulnerability

Ending in pain

But riddle me this-

Say, I do not succumb

Say, I feel and say nothing

though it is a lot of effort.

Riddle me this,

does a lack of pain

necessarily mean a lack of hurt?