Poem: I Gave the Love

I Gave the Love

Words by Lucienne Cross
Image by Gretchen Gales
QuailBellMagazine.com

I.

I wanted a love on which I hover so close to hell I feel its heat on my skin.

I wanted a love that suffocates and inhales for me.

I wanted to tattoo your name around my neck like a grasp that chokes, sputters and then gasps just to feel that rush of oxygen against the lustful walls of the furthest reaches of my body.

I wanted a love that is deafening like the pound of a bass that vibrates
my veins and threatens my own heart with a relieving release of duty

I wanted a love that keeps me awake, teetering on the limits of insanity
just to feel that rush of sleep blanketing over us, paralyzing and stealing you from holding me.

It doesn’t matter you let go
I could feel the lingering hold of nights before.
I had the feeling of your arms memorized and mapped on my skin.
I remembered the coordinates and airy space between every blade of hair on your chest.

I’d rather spend the rest of my life panting, sprinting back and forth between heaven and hell than grow fat somewhere in between.

II.

I got a love that breathed smokeless breath to heal and to satisfy my lung capacity

I got a love like a mirror that exposed my kaleidoscopic face, patiently twisting your light with inescapable, biased veracity

I got a love terrified of the open sea who’s gurgles push and pull and launch your stomach through your throat, and I inhale

I got a love that trusted me to the foamy shore, swelling your chest with a gust of salty air and my smokeless exhale

It doesn’t matter that it may be the one unrelenting, unwavering thing
that will watch our belongings while we run into the sea
to burn our eyes in the salt, to swim, to spin

I got a love on which I soar so close to the sun I feel its warmth on my skin.

#Unreal #KaleidoscopicFace #UnwaveringPasson #ConsumingLove #Poetry 

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