THE GARDEN I PLACE UPON YOU
I want to sit by your bedside,
While sleep gathers you in its hush,
Watching your breath rise and fall
Like a tide that knows only peace.
Your face—so still, so unguarded—
A soft verse the night keeps repeating.
And when your eyes slowly open,
Finding me there in your first light,
May a blush unfurl upon your cheeks
Like a rose trembling at dawn.
As you rise and place your feet upon the floor,
I take them gently into my lap,
Tracing them with red alta—
Then I fasten a pair of silver anklets,
Just to hear the song your lotus feet sing as you walk.
I will tuck a peony into your hair,
Watching it rest in the grace of your bun,
As though it had always belonged there.
Now you sit before the mirror, gazing at yourself,
Opening your jewellery box, adorning your wrists with white conch bangles.
And I think—if I could, I would turn lilies into bangles,
Circling your wrists, your arms,
So that every movement of yours
Carries the hush of a forest in bloom.
As I look at you, I see the quiet of your bare neck.
I weave jasmine into that stillness,
Threading starlight into a garland for your throat—
A sweet breath lingering in the evening air.
Marigolds, bright as the sun I keep hidden,
I scatter where you step—a path of amber joy,
So that even the dust beneath your feet turns to gold.
And for a moment of quiet, a single daisy—
Placed in your palm like a secret,
That even in the garden of us,
You are the rarest bloom.
Go forth in your petals and your quiet grace.
And as the sun turns and the day fades into dusk,
Remember the scent I have left upon your skin.
It is the only vow I have ever needed—
To keep the seasons of us from ever ending.
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
stormborns
