I finally know what true love feels like.
Like something gritty under a finger nail.
Like a growing pressure behind one eye.
Or the sudden smell of burning tires.

Listen to me, please. Love is something like

a mouth full of glass and spit and cartilage.
Love is a cadaver dressed in gold leaf.
Love is blood and puss smeared on a mirror.

Do you hear me? Love is

Mold spots on memory foam.
Two palms cupping Robitussin
Love is a hacked webcam feed.

Why aren’t you understanding me?
Love is a freezer burned dinner!
It’s your doctor’s maiden name!
It is court ordered pyrokinesis!

Please stop ignoring, me I’m telling you,
it’s cybernetic enhancements superseding
the microscopic cellular components of
the serous membrane fucking hear me

It’s the bridal paradigm: the Bride of Christ,
the marriage supper of the Lamb the aching
breast bone as gods face softens the body
lurches past the kingdom, into god’s open mouth.

If you’ve never felt this way
you’ve never known true love.
Let me love you just once
and you’ll understand.