Forgive My Sternness

16 February 2026

https://poems.culturing.net/2026/02/forgive-my-sternness/

Forgive my sternness and many projections. I'm sure I have misunderstood.
By now you will know this is how I sort things out.
I will listen more closely, and filter my own feelings out.
I may have more of Thomas in me than I'd like to admit,
but I doubt that you meant to say so (although if you did, let me know).
With this trigger removed, I can see more clearly your reciprocation,
though maybe you retract it now. I don't know why I took so personally
what seems to me now a confession of desire, however clumsy. Perhaps this is all
too real, too sudden, too good to be true. But I still
want to see it through.

Let's take our time with it.
The future is open and waiting.