02/26/2021
Things I’m remembering: the way you read me Rumi poems when I was in labor. The sky cracking open inside me, waves, the body already knowing. A thunderstorm in January, the unexpected way it wakes you up from your dreams. Smelling the coffee from the upstairs room. Books spilling open while we talked about the way it felt to feel alive. Fields of unpressed flowers in the sunshine. Rain that gives way to remembering. Pressing my face into the side of your ribs. The way we didn’t kiss each other, but we wanted to. Those days, like a lagoon that carried us. The sea salt licking us, the salted caramel ice cream after. The inside of the lighthouse. Camping against the dunes. Waiting for the stars to come out, so I could show you what it looks like when we remember to be free. A strawberry moon on your cheeks. I don’t know what I want more, you or another part of me, I said. You laughed and said, what does that even mean? and we both sighed and let the moment take us a while. I could live in this breath, you told me, eating peaches in the ripe part of the afternoon, your hair the color of milky oats, these pauses where I want you more than anything, gold tears, sweet half moons of light on your lips.
. . .