Think about all the people who have touched us,
The messages they have sent through their hands.

We are a series of stories.

But, the stories we write in our heads may not always be
The authors intended words.
What a shame that two people can interpret reality so differently,
And even worse,
When we interpret it the same way,
Just never have the courage to open another page.

That is how we lose the possibility for love.

Salt crusted tears leaving streaks-
what ifs, I wish, gone.
Markings on my cheeks of us.

It’s been raining all day today.
Each drop feels like the coldness of your breath on my neck as we lay sleeping in the bed we used to share.
Today marks a big day in your personal history.
I wonder if you love me the same today as you did when you first saw me standing next to a date tree playing a game with kids from your village;
If you love me more than those days you told me I was beautiful and I felt it in the reflection of your smile on my face.
I wonder if you will love me still when the girls on the streets of your new home start to resemble me and if thoughts of me, while faraway, will interrupt your bliss or add to it.
When I think like that, I don't like the rain, I won’t like the sun either.
I don’t like any day that I can’t see what you feel.

Somebody love me like the moon loves the stars. Someone listen to me like the trees do the wind. Let me be free like a flowing river and let me shine like the sun through rain clouds--even if ephemeral, I can give the earth life, help the seeds to grow and the flowers to bloom. When the rain comes, I will recede, for what is the blessing of sun without a little rain?

I fell in love with you under trees in cities you had never been and in villages with names I can hardly pronounce.

I fell in love with you between mountains in the only place that protected me from the chaos of the world.

I fell in love with you as I fell in love with your country,
A Moroccan love as sweet as fresh figs from the trees behind your house.

I fell in love with you in my dreams where we met in my imagination, I fell slowly, then all at once, thinking about the places we would go together.

Faraway as we are now,
I know when I take a deep breath you can feel the weight of a heavy sigh,
The release,
The wish of being next to you.

I want to hide behind your eyelids right now so I can see what you see everyday when we are away from each other.
I can cover them when things should not be seen,
And so that when you close your eyes,
All you will see is me.

I want to fall in love all over again.
And again, and again, in every new place.
I want to make love in more beds,
Under more sunsets that cast different shadows unto us,
In places where leaves change color and we change with them.

I promise the world will never have enough places to saturate my love.

Insatiable am I for this never ending sweetness.

If we run out of places,
I will make them in my dreams,
And this time,
I’ll take you there with me.

For now, hold on to that space we have.
The distance is making us stronger.
Don’t let go or we will both fall down (not out of love).

Just hold on tight and pull me back to you.

I want to still be yours
but I want to fall in love with other people too.

I want to be so consumed in love of many kinds
that it oozes out of me from every pore like juice being squeezed from a fresh fruit.

I know you don't want to share me but,
I should be spread like seeds of widflowers
wildly,
freely,
wholly,
flowing through the winds of lovers

unknown.