New Love

Onion skin, tulip petal, skim of ice, eggshell,
tissue paper, lace doily, paper snowflake, Maybasket,
crystal flute, spiderweb, hydrangea blossom, vegetable seedling,
plate glass, pasta noodle, spring green leaf, new love.

Some things are so fragile only fear contains them.
Just to hold them is a worry. Just to touch them
is a worry. Always worry, always worry.
Things of beauty, delicacy, tautness,
they stretch and pull against themselves,
they fall in pieces in light breezes.

Brand new, they push against odds, hold hope, suspend disbelief.
Beneath their crystalline exteriors there is something fragile,
something soft and thin, something waiting to break.