I/We

The places in your heart love leaves,
darkness enters, she says. We’ve
all seen it slither in, filling voids
by creating new ones. I nod this
time. She says it might be our fault.
We’re the ones with our eyes
so open, we haven’t tasted sleep
in decades. Not everyone is like
this. We see it all and we’re fucking
terrified. Aren’t you always just
waiting for the next bad thing, baby?
I see it in your eyes, she says:
you’re waiting for the earthquake,
the hurricane, the explosion, the
next fucking disaster. It’s all you can
think of. There are places in your heart
that are all places, no heart, baby. Why
won’t you let me in? Let me tell you,
darling, you’ve got it all wrong, I swear.
I know I used to have my eyelids stapled
up and down to keep from blinking.
I know when we met, my chest
was always on fire. Always burning,
burning, burned, and by day’s end:
black ash. But then two years ago,
you kissed me for the very first time.
I slept that night. I didn’t even know
it until it was the next morning, sun
erupting out of my chest, blinding me.
Do you remember? The places in my
heart you entered, dark turned to light
and that light turned to us and suddenly,
no voids, no hurricanes, no bad things.