The Taste of Your Words

Can we make a trade,

my words for yours? Not

just a conversation; we don’t

need words to speak. We have brief

glances that transform the air around us

into longing. We have the brush of your

finger against my skin until it tingles with

anticipation. We have a shared language

that lives inside our love. One look

from you conveys the depth of your

desire for me, but I want something more.

Is that selfish of me? That I want to

take your words and swallow them whole,

turning them over inside

my mouth like pieces of candy?

I want to taste your every word, savor

the flesh that exists behind your words.

I want to run my finger along the lid of your

intention until I know everything there is to know

about you. Will you be my teacher, teach

me the history of you? Did your mother ever force

you to sit at the table until all your vegetables were

gone? Did you rush home after school to watch

the evening cartoons? Did you sit at the kitchen table

most nights to study? Did you swell with pride when your

mom would look over your report card? When your dad

took you with him in the car, did you swing your feet

or were your feet able to touch the floor? Did you look

for me underwater when you went to the swimming

pool? Did you lie in the bed and dream our love into

existence? When you stood in front of the mirror

getting ready for school, did you search for me in

your own eyes as you looked toward the future?

Did you walk past vivid flowers that fill the air with their

aroma and imagine bringing me a bunch of wildflowers?

You knew didn’t you? You always knew that

forever would be birthed by inevitability and that our destined

meeting would turn into a lifetime spent exchanging

my words for yours. And that sometimes I’d hold onto your

words, making no exchange. Sometimes I want to just hold

your words like I’m holding you. Sometimes no words at all

would be needed to say, I love you. But still we would

because it’s true. I love you and I have since the day

I stood holding those words on my tongue, wondering if it

was too soon, but you saw the truth in my eyes. And, for us,

that was just the beginning.

Peace & Love,

Rosalind