IF YOU HAVE KISSED ME THEN YOU KNOW

i devoured him
as if he were a cherry in my mouth
all of them

i have
dived into
as if they were the sea

heads underwater
tongues serpentining
throats

and every one of them
would take me back
every one of them

still dream the same dream

if you have kissed me then
you know what i mean

the greatest gift
you can give a lover

is to allow them to breathe
underwater

everything seems so close
until you get    closer

everything seems so daffodil  
until you learn how to swim

but i have never mistook a tidal wave
for a broken halo or a spool of thread

though more than once i have mistaken a body
for a promise i wanted to keep

above all i believe
we are as trivial as we are burning

above all i believe
all men are born free

kiss me kiss me kiss me, my sweet 

kiss me and you will know what i mean


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(this poem was inspired by the works of Sylvia Plath)

CONNECT THE DOTS: A Love Story

1.) Like the time I was trying to pretend I was tougher than I am and I told my lover I didn't need anyone to take care of me and he said but I want to take care of you and that's when it happened. That's when everything inside of me softened and I realized his love was panoramic. 2.) His love is panoramic. 3.) And the time I thought I had been broken but it turned out I'd only been mistaken. 4.) Connect the dots. 5.) Every time I play connect the dots I draw pictures I never could have made without all those other steps showing me the way. 6.) My lover's body is a gift between midnight and the dawn. A space where we do not need light in order to find each other. 7.) Stay there. Stay right where you are and let everything around you change. You will change too. But it will be without having to be wrestled to the ground. 8.) Every moment is a lesson in evolution. 9.) My lover's hands are a lesson in holding on. 10.) The only way to defy gravity is to believe in it. Believe in it with all your heart and atrophy will not affect your bones. 11.) Yesterday my friend asked me for advice on men but what could I tell her? My lover is a lesson in warm affection and my coldest former flame was a lesson in chiropractics. 12.) Never chase a man whose head is two inches ahead of his body. It means he lives in the past. 13.) And if someone tells you they will never be good enough for you you should believe them because why would anybody make up a thing like that? 14.) That is all the advice I have. 15.) Connect the dots. 16.) My lover's love is panoramic. 17.) People tell us who they are all the time. We just have to listen. 18.) Love is as love does. 19.) We do. 20.) We are. 21.) And when my lover puts his hands over my eyes and then takes his hands away I am always somewhere new. 22.) Nothing lasts very long. Not even sadness. 23.) How could I have not seen this before? 24.) Trust me when I say that even the most circuitous route will turn into a clear image in the end. 25.) We all need to take care of each other. 26.) My lover's love is panoramic.

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