"Does love make you selfish?It sure makes you weak in the knees.You haven’t felt this disentangled..."

“Does love make you selfish?

It sure makes you weak in the knees.

You haven’t felt this disentangled from your own bones before.

He’s all that ever comes pouring out of your mouth.

He’s all you run your tongue over.

His name, like salt and leftovers between your teeth.

You wind your palms tight round his words when it gets dark.

Keep the warmth in his voice for when it rains too hard.

Does love make you selfish?

You sailed the August rivers for months on end

until the June canal led you straight to the Pacific.

You found in him a sliver of sea, still fresh, still uncharted;

turned it red and sparkling and alive.

Now you have more heaven and sun swelling up in your lungs

than you could ever think to do with them.

Do your ribs ache from floating all the time?

Do your fingers wear away from too much light?

No. You won’t let them.

Just promise you won’t drown. Just don’t forget to breathe.

Come up for air once in a while.

Does love make you selfish?

They tell you that you found it too young. Too soon.

That at eighteen, your sails should’ve been mangled beyond recognition

and wouldn’t be stitched back until the rest of your skin

worked their way clean and smooth around your body.

They don’t know how it really feels, do they?

You built an island in his chest to rest your bones on.

This is where you’re allowed to put down your armour.

This is where you loosen the heaviness, the gravity crushing you.

This is where you go when the wreckage piles up.

But you don’t forget about the other parts of the world.

The course of the rest of you still runs deep and violent as ever.”

- Suraya Kamal, Does Love Make You Selfish? (via figmentalism)