you know the other day when
you were reading over my shoulder?
my fingers were cold holding down the page
but my face was warm
next to yours.
we even drew the gaze
of everyone in the room.
if i were someone else
i would have stared too.

Silly school girl with someone else to hold her
Can't compensate for how much you care

do not date a girl
who writes.
she will internalize
everything,
carve poems
into your eyelashes
instead of
kissing them,

she will analyze you,
calculate age
from the rings
your coffee cup
leaves
instead of refilling it.

she will memorize
the way your
lips curl around steam,
but not that you
take it
two sugars,
no cream.

she will read your
palm instead of
holding it
against her chest.

she will not
blink
when you leave,
because she is
already
romanticizing it.

I fell in love,
I didn't even mean to

But does anyone ever mean to?

The first time I hugged you your skin was like the down on a baby duck
I could have spent hours stroking the palm of your hand with my thumb
It was soft and warm
Like a new spring leaf
But now every bare skin hug is marred with your skin
Rougher than tree bark
Every line on you, I can see the pain you have endured through the years
In your youth you are so old
Holding your hands now, it has lost its spark
Your hands are colder than any winter I’ve lived through
Your hands
Are now almost just bone
Thats probably because you have only grown taller, no wider, since seventh grade
Even the beautiful cherry smile you had
Its is now lost in the wind like the last crumbling winter leaf

i dont want to seem ungrateful for your love
or whatever it is you call it when your hands are all over me
i just need the space to grow and become who im meant to be
i just need the room to breathe
and to let "like" transpire into "love"