Here

I have drawn maps for you, dear.
Every mountain and valley painted
out; every swamp, lake, and desert
pinpointed. I’ve made calculations,
sketched with accuracy; back bent
for days on end.

Right here is where I began to love
you: throughout this river that ran
through the whole of me and back again.
I loved you into oceans and seas,
tsunami tides threatening to drown
whole cities of me. I was quickly
underwater for you. Lungs full and
breath discarded; given up. I had
never known my forest heart to burn
until you touched it, acres and acres
of trees ablaze.

And here I was, a post-apocalyptic
world of a person and you roam me,
victorious and solitarily, planting
your flags on every continent of me.

You have claimed me, lover. Every
speck of sand and droplet of water
was yours for the taking. And I have
exited myself and migrated into you;
every inch of your skin a home I have
dug my roots in.

I had drawn a map for you, darling,
I had mapped out all my landscapes.

Burn it;

my love for you like a thousand
recurring Big Bangs exploding, and
imploding, and erasing, and rewriting
all my pasts and presents. Apocalypse
after apocalypse, and only you survive
amongst my wreckage.

Here is where I exist: outside of me
and within the confines of your skin.

An immigrant rediscovering my motherland,
I pledge full allegiance to your heartbeat
and your smile and those hands that have
carried me home.