This morning I cried
Because the blanket you gave me
No longer smells like you.

That scent you had asked me to describe
But I couldn't.
I said something generic.
"It smells good. You smell good."

I guess it's weird to tell a person they smell like home.

You tell me not to worry.
You promise you'll be back.
Back to sleep under that blanket with me.

I believe you with my whole heart.
Just as I've done everything with you—
WITH MY WHOLE HEART

My head, however,
Isn't so sure.

From a flowering plant
From a naive heart
Harvested and opened
Roasted and transformed
Broken and darkened
By life
By process
Ground into powder

                                     Pulverized

Boiled and burned
Strained

                                     Drained

Not even a fraction
Of what it once was
But the result
is
Delicious
Sustaining

                                 ­    Beautiful

Experienced differently
Enjoyed
Interpreted
Or
Suffered through
Differently

Drink up.

When I say that I love you,
I mean that right now,
in this moment,
I am in love with you.
I mean that I care about you.
I mean, that right now,
in this moment,
I would like to be with you for the long run.
I mean that right now,
in this moment,
I can see myself being with you forever.

When I say that I love you,
I do NOT mean that I can promise that I WILL love you forever.
It only means that right now,
in this moment,
I would like to try.
I do NOT mean that I think loving you will be easy.
It only means that right now,
in this moment,
I think it will be worth it.
I do NOT mean that I expect you to always agree with me.
I do NOT mean that I expect you to love me in exactly the same way.
I ONLY mean that I hope that you can try
to love me too.

Sticky summer days
Bored and lonely

My mother would tell me
To find shapes in the clouds.

"Look. That's a dog."
"Over there, that's a teapot."

"I see it," I'd say.
But I never did.

All I saw were clouds.

The freckles on your body
Like stars in the sky
I want to connect the dots

Kissing constellations
across your back

The entire universe
behind your eyes

The thunder clouds are rolling in
And all I want is your skin
On my skin
The taste of your sheets
In my mouth
As I bite down
Hard
They smell like you
Like us
Our lust
And the rain on the roof
The whisper on your lips
A kiss
A moan
An unsuppressed groan
When you touch me
With fire
Fingers crooked and long
Our bodies together
Dance to a song
The music we make
My whole body aches
For you
For us
Our lust
In these sheets
I taste
A future
Where this
Rainy day bliss
Of your skin
On my skin
Long after the sunshine
Has filtered back in

Someone once told you,
“Boys don’t cry.”
And for a while,
you believed them.

But like a flower,
kissed by the sun
and nurtured by the rain,
you opened yourself to the world.

And the world can be harsh.
Cloudy days can be cruel.
But if you wait for the sun,
I promise it will come back.

Your empathy may destroy you,
but that’s the price you must pay
to feel happiness and love
as deeply as you do.

And they will tell you,
“You are weak.”
But darling,
you are not weak.

And they will tell you
“You are less than.”
But darling,
you are more.

Boy who cries, you are beautiful.
But they will tell you
you are not.

Don’t listen.