Valentine

I’ve seen love in storybooks and songs,

watched it in films and on Broadway,

but no poet or playwright

could ever describe how your smile lights up my day.

It happened all of a sudden.

You were never a part of my plan.

But before I knew it, I was just a girl with a paper heart,

wrapped tight in the palm of your hand.

You appeared like a dream I had once,

dazy, soaked in honey so sweet,

like something I wanted so badly,

I wished hard enough that it showed up right at my feet.

You speak in inside jokes and mischievous smiles,

like you know something I never will.

You love me hard, you love me soft,

and I’ve always loved the thrill.

You taste like city dreams

and the poetry of those who stayed,

like love letters written in red lipstick,

like a treasure I’d never trade.

You are the reason the sun rises each day,

the reason I believe in fate even though I swore I never would,

the reason girls like me learn how to beg

when they know they’ve found something really good.

You taste like sin, like cherry gin,

like pinky promises well-kept,

like pumpkin pies and doe eyes

and floods of tears star-crossed lovers wept.

You touch like fire, like electric wire, 

a spark that starts a flame,

But still, I’d crash, and burn, and turn to dust,

Anything to play your little game.

You sparkle every hour.

Even in the darkness, I see your light.

The kind that blooms flowerbeds 

and makes even the wicked saints at night.

You say my name, I go insane. 

I melt just like the sky.

But night drips down, and blue-black drowns 

the sun in big brown eyes.

You've shown me this is forever

You, me, and poetry until the very end.

Your hands, they speak; your lips, they preach

what words could never lend.

The world dissolves when you’re around. 

Inside, I feel all sweet,

Like sugarcane in springtime rain, 

like falling to my feet.

You feel like fuzzy socks and sound like quick-ticking clocks

Like soft kisses against my skin 

Like ocean waves meeting the shore

and the heart that beats within.

You are the wish I made on a dandelion,

drifting with nowhere to land.

You are the wind and the wild and

and the waterfalls slipping right through my hands.

So, take me fast, don’t make it last, 

let’s love like lightning strikes,

Like stolen cars and candy bars 

and brawlers who love their fights.

Let’s write our names on windowpanes 

and shatter all the glass,

And if everything else fades, then so be it, 

Because I know my love will never pass.

This city is too small for us.

We have so much more to do,

from traveling across the world

to writing poems just to say I love you.

For now, let’s relish the day like it’s the last one we’ll ever have.

Because maybe love like this doesn’t happen twice.

Maybe fate only ever gets it right once,

And I think with us, she did quite nice.

You are all hands and heat and hunger

You are mine until the end of time

But until then, 

could you be my Valentine?