I've never been kissed so gently
so purposefully
as if the world depended on your lips      
and my skin.

I'm not sure what you see
maybe a flower with thin petals you don't want to rip,
maybe a face of porcelain you don't want to scratch,
maybe a healing heart you don't want to bruise.

I've never been kissed so softly,so cautiously,like you are somehow made of shattered glass
and are careful not to cut my skin
just because you are broken.

As if you don't see the scars and burns
that already pepper my heart,
as if I'm the fragile one,
     thin and feeble,
small and unreachable as if there is a chance I could melt into the ground
if you hold too tight,

and maybe there is a chance I will.

It seems like you map out the placement,
like stars making a curious pattern in the sky,
beyond either of our reaches.

I've never been kissed so delicately,so deliberately
like the winds at midnight across the ocean,
powerful and moving,
soft and caressing.

As if I'm a gem you have been searching for,
blood red,
milky,
uncut
and you don't want to snag your lips on my edges,
or maybe you don't want to scratch the surface.

I'm not sure I will ever know.