Milk and Honey (3 page)

every revolution
starts and ends
with his lips

what am i to you
he asks
i put my hands in his lap
and whisper
you
are every hope
i’ve ever had
in human form

my favorite thing about you is your smell
you smell like
earth
herbs
gardens
a little more
human than the rest of us

i know i
should crumble
for better reasons
but have you seen
that boy he brings
the sun to its
knees every
night

you are the faint line
between faith and
blindly waiting

- letter to my future lover

nothing is safer
than the sound of you
reading out loud to me

- the perfect date

he placed his hands
on my mind
before reaching
for my waist
my hips
or my lips
he didn’t call me
beautiful first
he called me
exquisite

- how he touches me

i am learning
how to love him
by loving myself

he says
i am sorry i am not an easy person to want
i look at him surprised
who said i wanted easy
i don’t crave easy
i crave goddamn difficult

the very thought of you
has my legs spread apart
like an easel with a canvas
begging for art

i am ready for you
i have always
been
ready for you

- the first time

i do not want to have you
to fill the empty parts of me
i want to be full on my own
i want to be so complete
i could light a whole city
and then
i want to have you
cause the two of us combined
could set it on fire

love will come
and when love comes
love will hold you
love will call your name
and you will melt
sometimes though
love will hurt you but
love will never mean to
love will play no games
cause love knows life
has been hard enough already

i’d be lying if i said
you make me speechless
the truth is you make my
tongue so weak it forgets
what language to speak in

he asks me what i do
i tell him i work for a small company
that makes packaging for—
he stops me midsentence
no not what you do to pay the bills
what drives you crazy
what keeps you up at night
i tell him
i write
he asks me to show him something
i take the tips of my fingers
place them inside his forearm
and graze them down his wrist
goose bumps rise to the surface
i see his mouth clench
muscles tighten
his eyes pore into mine
as though i’m the reason
for making them blink
i break gaze just as
he inches toward me
i step back
so that’s what you do
you command attention
my cheeks flush as
i smile shyly
confessing
i can’t help it

you might not have been my first love
but you were the love that made
all the other loves
irrelevant

you’ve touched me
without even
touching me

how do you turn
a forest fire like me
so soft i turn into
running water

you look like you smell of
honey and no pain
let me have a taste of that

your name is
the strongest
positive and negative
connotation in any language
it either lights me up or
leaves me aching for days

you talk too much
he whispers into my ear
i can think of better ways to use that mouth

it’s your voice
that undresses me