rules (?) of love
i. you have always been a secret.
ii. a shy and awkward jumble of skin and bones, you are trying to disappear.
ask yourself, “who am i?”
iii. his golden wheat hair
catches your eye —
and it’s the most beautiful blonde you’ve ever seen.
iv. remember, you are a secret.
v. when he tells you that
he knows who you are —
drink in his words like nectar
and save each drop, in jars of honey,
tasting each word on your tongue with each sweet spoonful
and feel each letter slide gently down your throat.
save them for rainy days.
vi. grow tired of being a secret. shed your skin
like swirls of a tangerine peel
falling slowly to the ground. Let him in; it will hurt —
share your secret with him;
be an open book,
till you are completely bare.
vii. tell this boy that you are loveable,
knowable,
vulnerable.
viii. you will fall in love gradually, like losing baby teeth –
clumsily, slowly, one at a time
then all at once.
ix. when your nights are plagued by screams and
nightmares –
let him guide you out of the darkness
into the gentle light of his arms. let him hold you tight. don’t let him let go.
x. don’t let go don’t let go don’t let him go please don’t let me go.
xi. you are the most dangerous in the breaking daylight
of the earliest part of dawn.
xii. in this light he looks so different; he is vulnerable.
he touches you and it feels like fire
open your hips and in he slips
as you kiss the corner of his mouth.
xiii. when he asks you if you slept well,
only tell him what you dream of.
