Lovers

Lying in our dark bedroom,

I listen to your steady breath

As we lay back to back

Bodies kissing

Molding perfectly into one another.

Home is 600 square feet,

Our tiny kingdom

Full of laughter and inside jokes

Alongside arguments and tears,

Where we breathe the same air.

Our tiny bubble, that I never want to pop.

I trace your face with my fingers

Over and over and over again

So I’ll never forget it when I leave you.

***

Home became someone new

Someone steady and hard working

With rough hands

And a rougher past.

His blue-gray eyes stare longingly into mine

As he tells me “you are whole”.

I fill the void in his life

The cavernous hole of instability

With steady love and cookies from scratch

Living in the kitchen

That he designed for me

Before he even knew me.

Where I stand over the stove every night

Imbuing my love into every meal

Filling his belly and his heart.

Home is the crowded bed full of intersecting limbs

Twisted blankets and snuggled pups

Everyone snoring while I lay awake

Thinking about the crack in our foundation

That my love will never be enough

To fill the aching void inside of him.

***

Now my home lies in your brown eyes

A rich brown, as warm as you.

Your broad face. Your broader shoulders.

Home is your strong arms, which hold me close

As you kiss me and tickle me with your soft mustache.

Home is your arms wrapping around me as you sleep

Reaching for me even as you dream.

I move, then you move

Our bodies intertwined

I lean into you as you breathe into my ear

Your heartbeat steady against my back

Hands always searching for mine

My head tucked under your chin.

We fit perfectly together.

Your warmth is a comfort to my cool skin.

You tether me to this earth,

the anchor in a roiling sea,

as I try to keep my head above water.

I never needed you to save me, but nevertheless

You did.