Page 151 of The Temptation of Truth

I tried on the quiet,

and danced in the loud.

I stitched a few maybes

into the hem of my now.

until a life,

both hers and mine

slipped over my shoulders

and down my thighs.

no bars

no walls

but fresh blooms

and deep breaths

of all the lives

that I’ve traveled in,

you are the perfect fit.”

She finishes and looks at me with a nervous smile.

“Again, it’s rough. I tried with a rhyme scheme, and I kind of lose it in the end, so I have to rework it, but the premise stays the same.”

I work to keep tears from my eyes, but I’m absolutely terrible at it. I always am.

“I love it,” I say honestly, and she smiles.

“I love you.”

I take her face in my hands and kiss her again, grateful that I have the freedom to do this whenever I want. Whenever I need to. Like water. Like air. Likelight, she gives me everything I need to thrive, and like a flower to the sun, I will always reach for her. Always.

I rest my forehead on hers and smile against her lips.

“It’s beautiful. I think you get better with every new poem.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I guess you would know best.”

“I would?”

“Yeah. My poems are my heart on the page, after all, and no one knows my heart better than you do.”

I pull back and bounce my eyes between hers, hazel-green and filled with a galaxy of starbursts. I love her. I’m so damnin love with her that I could burst with it. I love her so deeply and infinitely that there aren’t enough words in the English language for me to describe it. Yet, somehow, she manages to do it perfectly in just a few stanzas every time.

“What are you thinking, Brooklyn Susan Ainsely Mabel Rossi?”

I laugh lightly, then press one more kiss to her lips.

“I’m thinking that I’ve tried on a lot of lives, Aurora Jade Hammond, but this one, with you, is my favorite.”

THE END

(for now)