Promise
written by: Jenny Morelli
It starts with a look
that I feel through my toes,
the floor beneath me
shifting tilting pulsing.
You reach for me.
I can’t hear my own thoughts
past my thundering
heartbeats.
When your hand
touches mine, your calloused,
grease-stained fingers
slide along my soft tender wrist.
I feel is my pulse
against your thumb
thump-thump, thump-
thump, a dizzy, zig-zag vertigo.
I tug my hand from yours.
Your eyes grow wide.
Mine narrow.
I shake my head.
You nod.
Is it true? Do you really?
I taste my words,
hold them in with my tongue.
Can’t be the first to say them.
Your lip slides up
in one corner.
Your smirk melts my confession,
a hot liquid that drips
past my clenched teeth.
I love you.
My voice
is gossamer thin,
is gossamer strong.
The words linger, hover,
coil between us like smoke.
You lean in, feather-soft
minty lips graze mine
Your fingers lace into mine
You lead me
through fresh-fluffed fog
past seven heavens
beyond nine clouds
into a sky’s abyss
a cocooning darkness.
We embrace this risk, this
leap of faith. Only tomorrow
knows for sure, but for now,
in this moment, we
are infinite confessions,
all arms, legs, bodies, heartbeats,
possibilities and pulses and love
whisper small and shout-it-
from-the-rooftops loud,
an always-and-forever
promise.
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