I love you in a way that feels against my will
But also in a way that feels part of my design
I love you in a sense that is primal, innate, instinctive
Like we’re a pairing
The pepper and the salt
In a past life, we met on a tabletop in a diner
In another, we met as equals in a rocks glass
***** and orange juice
Sharp-tongued meets bitter-lipped
I love you like someone carved your initials into the trunk of me
With a rusty trusted pocket knife
Like a subtle proclamation
On a landmark that doesn’t belong to us
But serves as proof
I plus you equals forever
I love you even though I’ve resisted
Denied for being difficult
Or too circle for the square
I’d carve corners off of me
To make it make sense
But somehow my rounded corners
Met your angled edges
And now our shape commands room for itself
I love you like I’ve done it before
Habit, practice, addiction
A dog-eared page
I feel you in my spine, fixing my posture to pride
Just how you feel me in your ribs, fixing your spirit to your sins
I love you come sun, or stars, or noontide
My knotty pined boy-
“I love you, despite the parts of you that are complex”
“I love you, despite the parts of you I don’t understand”
“I love you, despite the parts of you that are weathered”
“I love you, despite the parts of you that are unforgiving”
I could never love you like that
Every skin you’ve shed becoming who you are
Every bit of potential you hold in the dream of you
Every version of you that I have yet to meet or may not ever come to know-
I love you there
For they are all extensions of you
And the only thing better than loving you
Is having more of you to love
Then, now
All that you’ve been, are, or have yet to be
I love you in the hours less thought of
And in hours thought holy
Come sacred Sunday mornings
Or weekday convention
I see you in the ordinary
And in the outskirts of sanctity
Do I love you… boy, do I
For how could I not?