I love you like,
a forged permission slip
like all the dangers my parents warned me about that this world has to offer
the thing they told me I wasn’t old enough to handle
the roller coaster I wasn’t tall enough to ride yet
all these safety measures
that were there for my own good
I took the bypass,
cut in line
let my naive mind drive
I wanna love you like climbing without the crash pad
no safety harness or pads
forgetting my mouth guard
like trying to run a marathon in my best heels
as if I’d never suffered through a blister before
You make me want to leave my umbrella at home
Stupid in my youth and over eager
I swear I knew better
I swear I knew everything already
too smart to heed to their cautionary tale
it was in one ear and out the other
because I was wise enough about life to make
decisions fueled on desire alone
I whisper things like
“what do they know?”
as I strike the eject button with my palm
with no comprehension for motives or consequences
the step I wasn’t ready for
this is the part of the story they warned me about
this is the fall
this is the mess
this is the side effect
this is exactly what it looks like when everything they said would happen,
does
When I ignore all caution and
all exclamation points up on the bulletin board
disregarding all those wise words
You are a “no diving” sign
and hitting rock bottom face first
and loving it
I love you like
a bad recipe
I wanna spread the ingredients out across the kitchen
and forget to read the instructions
You’re baking soda instead of powder
and not caring that it didn’t turn out like the picture
because damn,
you still taste good
like we tried our hardest
and tonight
that’s finally
good enough
I want you like a mess on the entry way floor
the scattered relief we leave around our feet because
it just feels so good to be home
so why would I hang up my coat?
You are turning up the music too loud
and not caring when the neighbors complain
because we’re too drunk in each other’s skin
So let the police show up
tonight I’ve had enough freedom to be careless
& there’s enough wind here to take my inhibitions with
Baby, tonight
let’s be reckless
like
not using your turn signal
reckless
like
I don’t have anything to do tomorrow morning
so let’s stay up past 11 reckless
but we’ll wake up with the sun
because it feels so good to be alive
why would we want to miss this
I want to wake up drowning in the bed sheets
tangled in each other’s hair
still smiling from last night’s
tender, soft swirl of sleep
You make me ill
like,
I have an unhealthy desire to get to know you, ill!
Like,
butterflies and tears from laughing so hard, ill!
You are
The rush of staying out past curfew,
because our parents are out of town
The sweet twist of having dessert before dinner,
the thrill of waiting till last minute to write that paper
Baby,
you’re the only thing I don’t procrastinate
you can be my dissertation
I wanna love you like I’ve already made all the mistakes,
so now it’s my time,
to finally get things right
I wanna fall for you,
like I’ve never been hurt before
like someone whose yet to discover gravity
or the way skin can scar
I don’t want it to matter that we’ve both been places before
that we both have spots on our skin we don’t like to be touched
anymore
I want to push my fingers into your bruises
show you the beauty in all those
open wounds
I want to scale each others walls
take off our tupperware armor
and forget how to apologize
and just simply say
Thank you, I needed this.
I want to love you guilt free,
like before we ever knew what calories were
or that there was ever a reason to hate our own skin
Like Adam and Eve
this whole world was made for us
and you’re the forbidden fruit
I want to love you like you’re somebody worth dying for
I wanna make love to you like scripture
with all the history of a great love, with how-to's written in the margins, and none of the rules
I promise that if you let me,
I could enlighten you
I could write you immortal and kiss you into oblivion
I want to love you in color
