These Are Not My Truths, X

X

You always startle

me
with your naked
exuberance
(boxers, never briefs)

Even wearing
almost nothing
but your stupid smile
you make me feel little

(Not small, as I keep trying

to explain to you)

I told you, I don’t

‘do’

Love poems,

All you did was

Laugh at my air quotes

(Damn straight I use ‘em)

and kiss me ‘til I shut up.

When I told you, in all dread
of the missed.
 period

your eyes were happier
than I’d ever seen.
Even as you let me be
the eternal pessimist
and string theories together
of why it shouldn’t happen,
now, to us, in this world, ever…

(I can’t help but admire the strength you exude
not the outside, the muscles made strong
from years of heavy lifting
with your dad, the construction worker,
and not from the kind
the gym gives you after
too much work for me)

“Is this what it’s like
to live with your heart in your mouth?”
you murmur into my stomach
as though the bean sized…
baby
can hear.
I grin, this I understand,
(I whisper my truth, my fear
into your hair)
and reply, “Welcome
to my world. Population
two.”