last May
on my couch
as we pretended to watch
animal planet
as we pretended to listen
to hippos playing,
the world was silent
as we slowly inched closer

until
we breathed
‘**** it’
and then

after all that time
for the first time
like nothing else
there was nothing else
but time

that’s when
I knew
you make
me brave

enough to jump
headfirst into
a pond full of
some predatory
hippos.