Land Mine Love

Second Deployment

Yours is a land mine love, baby.
On the surface you're pleasant.
Appealing.
Winsome.
An easy-day lover. 

But I have learned your danger.

At any moment
Without signal
Or arbitrary warning
You will detonate
And inflict thousands of BB-sized gashes 
Others the size of grapefruit

Through my trusting flesh.

Days afterward I am still doing triage
On the most bloody wounds
Keeping my distance
Being quiet as you protest
That it's I who make you crazy
And if only...
If only...
If only...
I would not say this or that
Or the other
I would not cause you detonate.

I have run this jungle before
And I swore, if I survived 

I'd never return to this
Valley of the shadow of death.

I am a fool.
I thought a "second deployment"
Would surely be a snap 

Because I've been here before.