We all know it…

Lips curving into a smile

Butterflies falling into a belly

Dripping nectar & igniting something

Is it anxiety, no anticipation

Excitement, ecstasy, fear

All culminating into…

Hello

How are you bumblebee,

I see your stinger & yes I’m scared

But I couldn’t help but notice that you know how to make everything sweet

By your nature—in the very act of being

You turn beauty in sustenance, flowers are the ground by which your life speaks

So tell me, what are you doing next week

Another smile…

We all know it,

This love is our love

But not only this,

A cold night in September

Lungs are failing, stomach is turning

A little girl doesn’t have long

Blood on a handkerchief—held by the hands of a mother. Her heart breaks because it beats, beats, beats for this little girl who doesn’t have long

But she has something

A mother who reads her mystery books with voices—the aloof train hop, suave detective, fem fatale, you name it

Pretend paper airplanes, wars between princesses with swords and terrible old & the little girls heart sings

Because it beats, beats, beats

Still.

We all know it

This love is our love.

Homeboy roasting homeboy on open fire

Girlfriends chopping it up before the club, or just dinner—father’s telling sons “I’m proud of you.”

Heroes remembering that this is why they fight, breaking a back to preserve a family, breaking a heart to preserve thy own, having your broken

By someone,

or something,

or everything.

We all know this,

This love is our love.

It hurts.

It nourishes.

It’s bullshit.

It’s heaven.

It ours.