you and me, as flesh
Poem: ‘the rabbit on my foot, startled like the river, / coursing through the bed, giggling at our feet. / there is soup and bread and tea and honey for the quiet ache. / we don’t need to eat god for breakfast.’
we sink into each other, soft and warm.
your quivering tenderness and my icy back against you.
you open the blanket and let the faintest ray
of sunlight pour over our bodies.
i touch the sun on my fingertips—
calloused, alive, searing warmth into me.
i have known you for years; this is how we live.
let us lope like foxes, noses against each other,
ears pricked, ready to run together at the next burst of wind.
let us coil into each other like rivers eddying,
and rest where all currents meet. hush.
to know god is to exist in this moment.
i could turn this love into jam,
so you’d always have something to eat.
i hope you never run out of bread
nor of the utterance of my name from your mouth.
a lump of clay moulded into a figure of you and me.
two syllables in your name: one yours, the other for me to say.
when you tell me you love me,
i remember how to pray. hush. here. listen.
the air in my lungs belongs to only you.
i dream of childhood, apis cerana, a lily, and a
dim-lit porch for you and me, and how long my apology would be.
sorryloveyouloveyousorry—but
i will learn how to bake, and we will never go hungry.
the rabbit on my foot, startled like the river,
coursing through the bed, giggling at our feet.
there is soup and bread and tea and honey for the quiet ache.
we don’t need to eat god for breakfast.
you must learn to braid my hair, and i will
braid time for you, stitching a sky with all my apologies.
you were here once—read: you are still here. hush. here.
listen. can you remember to bring the jam inside?
i made sure to cut it
into short pieces of forgiveness.
***
Maansi Sharma (she/her) is an undergraduate student who loves reading and writing poetry in her free time. She adores cats, liminal spaces, and watching bad movies. She hopes you are having a nice day. You can find her on Instagram: @humnavaaz.
