Still air breaks under my breath
As you join me on the mattress
Knee to knee
Face to face
You level your gaze
And wait,
the embodiment of patience
and kindness
The antithesis
of everything I fear
And I know it’s safe
I rip the snarled storms
From my blood
And let them go
Wherever fear goes
When it creeps from dark corners
and is thrust into light
under your focus
your kindness
I collapse
My head in your lap,
hands spanning your thighs
You stroke my hair
Speaking as you do
Softly
Calmly
and you confess
my unvoiced confessions
as your own
Laughter bursts from my chest
—the absurdity of it all—
I sit up, lightheaded and weak,
And run my fingers over your
Rough, hollowed cheeks
The line of your jaw,
And thumb the rim of your lower lip
Here we are
Worlds away from the children
we were,
Life chapped and twisted
Yet somehow
Here
Knee to knee
Face to face
We’re at the beginning
