Web Booty

Love Poem

by Anaïs Mitchell

I.
Before we met I lived alone
And purified myself with books
And curled tight inside the bud
Of my perfect childhood

But blossoms fell out in the street
Blossoms fell around my feet
The night he brought me home with him
The night he brought me home

II.
The place was a nightmare, stacks and stacks of
Books and papers, warped with age
Record jackets, cans of beer, mattress feathers everywhere
And he stood in the midst of it
Bare chest, slow smile
We’ll sleep out on the roof he said I said okay
O and the loving stung me some
O and the loving rubbed me raw
O and I watched him all night long
And we were young and young and young
We’ll sleep out on the roof he said
I said okay

III.
His mother and I at the hardware store
For things that go around the house
She wants to buy chrysanthemums for us
In different colors
She says, “when he was little we would drive out to the farm
And buy the biggest pumpkin he could put his arms around”
I see his tiny hands
He staggers to the van
His mother looking after him and emptying her wallet

IV.
I hope I die before him
I hope he holds me just like this
A snail shell, a warm fist
I crawl inside forever

Source: Octave Magazine