You surprised my heart with an attack
Declaring war on my insides
With weapons never
Intended for conflict

You shot shit not from a bull
But a beast in human form
Even a guerrilla wouldn’t
Commit to those tactics

You agreed upon nonviolence
With plastic promises and cosmetic lies
Yet the paint on your face
Confirmed you were still in battle

You engaged without bloodshed
For you preferred the shedding of tears
A smile dropped here and a smile dropped there
You blew me up with peaceful kisses
The bombs of seductive love

I’m glad our one-sided struggle ended when it did
I would’ve never survived a nuclear relationship

You are not flesh and bone,
Not clay and dust,
Nor light and darkness.

Neither are you some color
Fixed between good and bad
Or a mere figment of a poet’s imagination.

Rather, you are an admixture
Of fierce fire and flexible water.

Whenever I am near you,
All I feel is constant steam, ripened heat—
A desire to burn, no matter the consequences.

Oh, my sweetest love,
How I envy the ground you walk upon
And long for a day when
I can feel all your weight against me!

To be
The unlockable door
The unclimbed steps
The shadow of a shadow
The ingredients of love or
The strings of Cupid’s bow
The tears of the sun
The voice of the moon
The uninvented words
The smell of forever
Or at the very least
A fire burning in Antarctica