The End of the Poem

Sunday evening fades

Like a repeated chorus after verse 3

Angsty

The soundtrack to winter light dying on a yellow legal pad

2014 is only 40 days young

And I have already regretted 40 things I have done

40 weeks ago I thought about you for the first time

And for 9 months, my mind

Has been pregnant with you

Trapped between the shoulders of Monday and Friday

Trapped within the armspan of 8 and 4

I am trapped within the edges of your smile

I am trapped within the crinkle of your eyes when you laugh

This poem is for you

All 7 billion of you

I am in love with you

Sometimes I think about writing a candle for you

You with the lovely eyes

You with the shame and you with the pride

I’d paint your initials on the head of a match

And drag it across sand paper

Phosphorous erupting

Mount Vesuvius has nothing on this

Right here, right here where

Wax descends into shameless melt

And a flame that would skitter between my teeth

Like yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across stars as Jack Kerouac cries out in his sleep

Sits heavy on the back of my tongue

Like the jewels of a crown

At the top of my throat

That’s hope

Right here

Right here on this stage, under these lights

That’s hope for all 7 billion of you

I fell in love with all 7 billion of you

And I lit a candle for all 7 billion of you

You with the skin deep enough to grow life in

You with the sigh like the click of wax crayons as they leave parchment, reminiscent of childhood and wild-eyed with hope

And I asked

How great it would be

If love worked in defiance

Of physics and chemistry and science

And if we could love regardless of our state of matter

That’s faith

Admittedly,

I am obsessed with the idea of a burning bush

Admittedly

I think that is the second holiest concept of all perforations religious

Admittedly

Despite the rational bleak that is approximately 0 gods,

I am superstitious

I believe in all the possible impossibilities

That come from luck both good and bad

Should I starve for 40 nights and 40 days

I would still believe in us

I would still be in love

With all 7 billion of us

That’s faith.