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Wanting to Stay

You asked if I was going to stay, I nodded,

but I'm just waiting here until your coffee cools,

until your feet go numb from sitting on them

so you have to switch positions, until the letters

magnetized to your fridge stop twisting themselves

into "sorry." Until I feel better about not calling you later.

 

Last night you asked if I liked Bon Iver,

I nodded, but I only did that in hopes that I could see

what the rest of your bra looked like, because

the strap was barely falling off your shoulder,

and I know you tried to tuck it neatly

under the straps of your dress, but darling,

I want to love you like a disaster. I want to tear

into your skin like your bones are a present,

it's Christmas morning, and I'm that little kid

sitting on the stairs, peaking. I want to line up

my heart with yours like they are those fridge magnets

with the thinest of barriers between them, your chest

a tiny cage that I have the key to, hidden

underneath my tongue. I want to rock you to that song

your telling me is your favorite that I promise

I'm not going to remember the name of. I want your sheets

curled between your toes as you breathe into my neck,

into my mouth, into my brain. I want to use your ribs

like a guitar, stroke them in a rhythm only I know,

only the two of us can hear the sound.

I want to come this close to falling

for you before I have to break free.

 

You asked if I really had to go, I nodded,

but in my mind I'm leaving you clues:

footprints on your carpet, my belt on the dresser,

my smile as I watched you through

the crack of light between the bathroom door

try to put your hair up ten different times

before you came to bed, just so you can find

my heart between the pillow cases

as I pull my car out of the driveway.

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Written by
sophie-herzing
German
Published
Jan 7, 2016
Lines·Words
37·345
Permission

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