Desire for Loyalty
Shire indicates her desire to have a loyal partner in her life within the last line. This line sufficiently wraps up this poem as she declares her worthiness for someone with the strength to stay. Prior to this line, Shire mentions her struggles with establishing true love, which has created a void in her.
Internalization of Unrealized Intimacy
In the third stanza, Shire speaks about the internalization of lost love she experiences. She says this is all she knows how to do. It gets to the point where she resembles the negative memories of failed romance, including every terrible fear and nightmare anyone has ever had. The loss sort of eats away at her self-confidence and sense of desirability, which is emphasized in the fourth stanza. This is where she questions her lover about how genuine his love is toward her, yet she's left with uncertainty and psychosomatic pain.
The Elusiveness of Love
Shire opens this poem mentioning the elusiveness of love, declaring that no one has it. In the second stanza, she describes love as something too good to be true with interesting metaphors, such as "fruit too ripe to eat" or "a door halfway open." She further compares love to "a hand she can never hold." It's as if she's saying one can have amazing ideals about the power of love, but lacks the down-to-earth capacity to live it.
