Loving is a danger

Loving is a danger.
To trust someone
Who will take you to your edges,
Cross all your protective boundaries,
And touch you
There,
And there,
Where no one else is allowed.
To love someone,
Enough to put it all on display,
Naked if you will, before other eyes,
Publicly,
To chance moments of pain.
To lay yourself down,
bound by the chains of love,
Exposed to the potential of harm,
At the hand of your lover,
Defies all your mind screams at you.
Like the snap of a whip
That can bruise,
leave welts,
lay your skin open at a stroke,
Exposes the question lying inside unspoken,
and therefore never answered.
You've been hurt before.
You've felt the slap.
You've felt the breaking of your heart
Like the tearing of your flesh.
Yet,
There you lie,
Naked,
Unashamed,
Unafraid though terrified.
Loving is a danger,
A risk,
A dare to your heart and your mind.
Daring to trust.
Daring to yield.
Daring submission to a lover's control.
It is in the daring
That love is exposed as real.
Only in risking all
Can all be gained.