the expanse of white linen,
rumpled,
with a lived-in quality
life-esque,
tumbles across the bed
covering the sheets we sleep
in and the minutia that comes
with little people in a
house:
a stuffed animal kicked to the
bottom of sheets,
a lego wedged in a back,
a forgotten blanket tangled
in legs.
Our body indentations in the
bed, curled towards each other
most of the time.
In the bright bedroom,
In a spare moment, we find
each other
and our souls find the pieces
that connected in the beginning
We uncover the root that
sometimes feels overgrown
With the weeds of life ;
wild with the necessity
of trying to make it and
trying to parent and
trying to love.
Instead of feeling like I
love you out of convenience,
I feel like I love you like I
did at our Origin Point.
For a small moment, I am
washed away into the pull of you
and reminded of who we are
All three wrestle you
All three scream and laugh
and play on you
Knees in noses, elbows in
eyeballs,
But, still
it is only us.
You see me;
jumbled,
tumbled,
rumpled
mess of a life.
But under the white linen
that we bought when we thought our lives were headed up,
Under the six pairs of elbows
and the six pairs of knees and the three little noses that we made when we knew
we were more than us,
under the earthy weight of
responsibility
and through the winds that
scattered our persistence
and against the lapping tide
of complacency,
your eyes lock onto mine.
In that moment
we tune it all out.
We uncover our common root.
We remember our Point of Origin.
In that moment,
the chaos we created melts
away
And it is only us. You find
my hand
Warm and familiar.
This moment is what we have
to sustain us;
The water to our parched
love.
For now, this is all we need.
Then reality comes rolling in
and there are bills to pay and the kids are crying and fighting and you morph
into the man who is a father.
You get up from the bed,
leaving your indentation behind, curled towards me.
My eyes follow you, and yours
linger on me as
Three small bodies crash into
you.
We share a look of
understanding.
Camaraderie.
Partnership.
Connection.
Love.
Then you’re carried off in
the meelee, laughing and
roaring like a tiger.
And I lay here
in the bright bedroom
curled towards you
Remembering how much I love
you.