Work Text:
I.
Setting: Paradise.
You’re Adam, I’m sure of it.
I guess that makes me Eve
or, well, (St)eve, haha!
I can’t believe you laughed when I said that.
A penny for my thoughts, you said when I stared.
I said I’d give you a dime in exchange for your time
and some help with these weeds that are growing just as
wild as me with feelings I didn’t know I could have.
I mean, it is a garden, sure,
but the heaven here is you. I’m sure of it.
To bask in the sunlight,
to be seen by your eyes,
to feel the blades of grass
both so green, both so wise.
Dandelion dust brushes
against my cheek like your fingers,
gentle and unsure.
how to make you sure
like me.
II.
Setting: my kitchen.
Soup simmering...
your smile, so sweet it’s sick, really.
There’s some carrot in your teeth.
I wish it were me stuck there.
We’re dancing, not cheek to cheek like I’d wished
but still— let me be Ginger, and you can be Fred.
We’ll go back to heaven where we met.
My feet aren’t as fast, in fact I’m tripping
surrounded by green and sunlight so bright.
Not as bright as your eyes. Or mine.
But I flounder as I fall
into your arms wide and open
as my eyes that you say are like your
favorite ocean off the coast of Miami
because it feels like home.
Could you want a new home? You think you could.
My knees are weak but I’d get on them
for you.
III.
Setting: Nirvana.
Do I ever have to come down?
See, I’d go down forever, to drown in you.
To fly in the stars, to land on the moon
reflecting in your eyes, shiny like pennies
if they were corroded and rough
like the way you touch me.
From there to here, you’re a whole different man
and I want to explore you like a jungle.
And I find you, I do, somewhere between
here and there
The space in between is everything.
It’s a happy space, mostly, warm and true.
We can say those things, those hidden prayers
sweet and filthy and vulnerable and what’s new
becomes old, becomes comfortable and sure
even more now than before. It’s okay to be who
we are.
IV.
Setting: home.
crosswords and coffee.
a jar full of pennies,
a head full of thoughts.
and trips to be taken.
a million talks had
with our eyes, the same way
we’ve made this home: slow
but steady,
sure as I’ve always been.
as you were too but afraid
no more
going back to the garden
where I first met you
where I made you mine.
o u r s.