Anniversary Letter
For Kevin
Listen,
I will not leave you.
Your heart – this place
of need, naked night
and cracked stars –
keeps me.
I have peeled away
the layers,
found the rubble cooling inside you.
I wonder now
what to do with this love.
I will not flash it on my ring finger,
dangle it from strings, polish it,
try to make it sparkle,
till it breaks.
I am many things,
but know this:
I love you wild
like a season of rain,
deep, overgrown.
What I’m saying is,
curl into this sleep with me
each night.
I will warm you with bones
you’ve learned to read well
like palm lines and sighs.
I will keep you.
Listen to me,
I will not leave you.
– Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné
