I will love you when you are a still day. I will love you when you are a hurricane.

“I am not the first person you loved.
 You are not the first person I looked at
 with a mouthful of forevers. We 
have both known loss like the sharp edges 
of a knife. We have both lived with lips
 more scar tissue than skin. Our love came 
unannounced in the middle of the night.
 Our love came when we’d given up
on asking love to come. I think
 that has to be part
 of its miracle.

This is how we heal. 
I will kiss you like forgiveness. You 
will hold me like I’m hope. Our arms 
will bandage and we will press promises 
between us like flowers in a book. 
I will write sonnets to the salt of sweat 
on your skin. I will write novels to your scars.  I will write a dictionary 
of all the words I have used trying 
to describe the way it feels to have finally,
 finally found you.

And I will not be afraid 
of your scars.

I know sometimes 
it’s still hard to let me see you in all your cracked perfection,
 but please know:
whether it’s the days you burn
 more brilliant than the sun 
or the nights you collapse into my lap
, your body broken into a thousand questions --
 you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. 
I will love you when you are a still day. 
I will love you when you are a hurricane." -Clementine von Radics