Inflamed

Calor

The warmth of your hands

Everts all my glands

Where each humor lands:

Pheromotions, rendered, are fanned

.

Dolor

Painfully aware, am I, of you

Woefully wan, am I, to you

Waywardly far, go I, for you

Longingly drawn, am I, to you

.

Rubor

Red-hot pokers are my bones

Pulverizing my dogged stones

My fever, refractory, defiantly shown

To defervesce, clichés, overblown

.

Tumor

I swell with grace and pride

And knell gratitude in stride

Come hell or worse, implied

I call you to my side

.

Restore

Love's injuries are real

Distracting 'gainst appeal

Inflames are lacteal

Purge painful heat, red swells — unsealed

______________

Author's Note: Inflammation, after an injury, poetically associated here with the injuries lovers sometimes inflict, has the following hallmarks, clinically: Calor (heat), Dolor (pain), Rubor (redness), and Tumor (swelling). I added a fifth, "Restore," for while inflammation has all of these negative aspects, it is, in reality, the initial stage of healing. Healing from love's inuries is not exception.