You set your love on a conveyer belt
recycled sheets of metal become placemats
For a consistent stream of tender moments
And I'm still getting used
to the new system

Much more often than not
My deadbeat heart binges and purges
on your fragrant stares;
so full of a flavor
I have never been described as before
I haven't always known this
It is new and familiar
It reminds me i have a spine
It turns your eyes into mountains
That I don't yet have the equipment to climb

But you hold my hair back
On the nights I can't choke down
the thought of being enough
You carefully make a plate for me
when I am ready to accept it
A rightfully seasoned dose of reality
A quiet whisper that most people
need a ghost writer for

I can only take so much, though
before my stomach
twirls around jungle gyms
I like to run from you on grass
or in convenience stores
I guess that's what I retained from recess
When you catch me,
I am still half deciding
how far my feet can carry me away
When your hands are warm, safe-haven
blankets draped over my waist

Do you ever get tired
of tugging on my dress?
Of kissing awake my tired eyes
I know
Sometimes they don't open
until dawn becomes midnight
Sometimes the tiles on the floor
are the most inviting thing in the room
if I don't count them soon enough
I'm afraid Ill lose track of my breath
Maybe of you

I'm sorry that I'm sorry
my past has taught me
to hand you apologies
as a sugary chaser
to follow anything bitterly genuine
When I feel my soul bubbling up
to the top of my throat
I will choke it down
so I don't let you drown in it

But it isn't until I rip my Velcro-chest
off of the kitchen floor
Let you hold my clenching jaw
That I realize that maybe
you'd like to test the waters
You give me a goofy grin
Your lips part and spell out

"Maybe it wouldn't be bad,
You could cover my ears
with your oceans smooth humming
Fill my organs with helium
and let me wander around
with your breath inside of me

Let me see
what you see
I don't care if it's scary
I'd stay in your haunted house
for a week if it meant
I could sleep with you  
on an air mattress
I will open the windows
Sweep the floor of your trauma

I will love you
if you let me
Let me show you
I have learned to love you
Already
Let me
Let me
Let me"

And I strap back up my vest
Leaving one more latch undone
Than we began with  
To tell you
"I love you
while i continue to try"