I.

I’ve swallowed too many I love you’s
to be afraid of coughing up blood.
They cut you on secret.
Who knew it was drinking gasoline
and sawdust and every little inflammable thing
and then sitting down cross-legged
in the heart of a howitzer; soft.

II.

You are a soft explosion.
You are streaks of a rebel orange
in a sky that is supposed to be blue.
You are steel rods in the curve of my spine,
holding me straight.

III.

I love you’s are like death notes written in ash:
you’ll have to smoke your way to it.
Smoke cigarettes, journals, curtains,
and yourself to get that much ash in your lungs;
trying to blow smoke rings into your finger;
my ceiling knows more about my sadness than you do.

IV.

Saying an I love you once will have you
chanting “don’t leave me” on a rosary;
love will take your bones and leave you
lusting for somebody whose back
is the last thing you’ll see, and whose
skin you’ll think you left your keys in:
and now you’ve locked yourself out
of your own house, in a storm
whose sirens wail in your ears and remind
you, you’re hopeless and homeless.

V.

I love you’s leave no exit wounds,
no shell casings, and when the time comes
you’ll be telling them all how his bullet
ricochets in your ribs,
but emotion never made up for evidence
in the court of settlements for a broken heart.

VI.

Telling someone you love them is like cutting your jugular
and not expecting to bleed out.

VII.

I love you like the pages of a mad girl’s journal.

VIII.

The moon turns from an ally
to the haunting image of science and realisation:
you share the same sky, but no longer the same bed.
And astronomy keeps ******* you over
when you look up at the sky
and no longer understand constellations.

IX.

Love makes it more getting-back-at-you
than getting-back-together-with-you.

X.

Every time you taste blood,
you’ll know you kissed somebody
with teeth like needles
and they cut you everywhere; they
bit you, they bit you, they bit you
and you kept letting them.

I'll be waiting
For those raging-fire smiles
To sear into my heart
And brand it with your desire

When the time comes
I will surrender everything
And want for nothing
Except for each word you whisper
To topple my castle
And your daring lips
To claim control of my own throne
As you speak

For I am lost in the darkness of your hair
The rivers of laughter
Typhoons of your waist
The legacy within your grasp
Long and familiar

This, I acknowledge
Under the epidermis of nightfall
Where blood departs from within my crown
Deposits in the veins of my hands
That glean your vessel like a cherished charm
Hoping to continue connecting like
Sinews and bone
Or
Roads to Rome's ruins

I am dizzy, but stand in assurance
And the soul is ready
To navigate the universe in your eyes.
I'll remain starstruck
Even when you're afar
Dazzling me more everyday.

Ifeanyi N. Okoro © 2018