This is Love.

I want hopeless devotion In the shape of hands tangled between Irish curls under morning sunlight Creeping in the window like a thief Stealing the stars away My forehead pressed to yours The words "good morning" taking their Marks at my lips Ready to rush out and greet your ears As I watch your eyelids flutter open You squint against the light and The words stumble from the blocks Before the gun can sound And a torrent of everything I could say comes Rushing up from my stomach, Threatening to scream out. I crave your obsession Your wants, your needs, your dreams, and your fears I want to hold them, gently Parting the dark from the light To watch you, unable to live without me Nurturing the desire to sit by my side To watch the world burn And, if necessary, Be the one to light the match To warm our hands in the orange glow Of everything we know turning to ashes But there are no phoenixes here Nothing will rise from the grey ocean of what used to be We've lost. There is no tomorrow. Die with me. Fill my empty chest with something akin to hope As these bones rise up beneath my flesh To greet the afternoon air When my form is bloated under a hot and unforgiving sun Don't turn away from me Witness this beautiful decay, this rotting, This return I make to the womb that bore me I hope I go before you if it means I can show you How to go with grace And you can meet me there. Love me. Like no one has ever been brave enough to love me. Lie to me. Like no one has ever been foolish enough to lie to me. But for now, look at me. Gaze back into my eyes with yours and let me see you Your perfect, oil-slick pupils crowned by a ring of Earth And the dying embers of the dream I'm falling into. The words are lost to me now. That's it. A dream. To find you resting at my side, content I feel my body shifting somewhere else Somewhere away from this bed, these blankets Far from you and the morning sun through the window And the stars racing away faster and faster I feel the Earth beginning to spin Pulling me away But I want to stay here. I will for as long as I can. "How beautiful" I murmur. "Hmm?" You blink back.