Do you worry that I’ll die for you? Your last one offered to, didn’t she? A poison love and a misfire devotion, and the bullet pierced so much nothing. Can I help you by saying that I am not her?
I am not going to die for you. I do not want to die for you. When they come calling, all cloaks and rage, I’m going to hide and run and remember your love as I tear it out of my skin.
I refuse to become your messy bits. I refuse to become your collateral damage. I refuse to be scar tissue and rot.
When we danced to Goodbye June and I laughed at myself and you laughed at me too, and there was so much smoke I could barely see you. That is what people call alive. A life. When you chased me at the edge of the water and I tripped over my own feet before either of us even started running. When I cried and ran from the monster at the end of my bed, and you punched a wall. When we talked about sleeping without a pillow. When we talked about red wine. When we talked about whether compasses were discovered or invented.
They call it Love. I believe love doesn’t exist. I don’t believe in the shape of hearts the way they tell us. I believe my heart is a middle puzzle piece, all four sides ready to match to another, until all of us are tangled up in this inescapable two dimensional bliss. I don’t believe love made me happy like you did. Why should I credit love for what my puzzle piece heart did?
Do you worry that I’ll die? That I’ll smoke too much, or run too deep, or get eaten by my monster? Don’t. You have brought me more peace than I deserve and I worshipped life when I was with you, when life was made of you, when you were life.