{PROMPT: How you feel about love these days}
Tomorrow is your birthday, and so
I say,
“Since on my twenty-sixth birthday I asked you to tell me something that I can improve in the coming year,
Do you want me to tell you something that you can do better in the coming year?”
You cover your face and act ridiculous for awhile and then say, “Yes.”
So I say, “You could work on not leaving fruit peelings all over the kitchen.”
And then you march straight to the kitchen-
Literally march-
And put your strawberry hulls and banana peel into the compost bin.
And then you come back to the living room with a somewhat satisfied look on your face and say,
“Are you done with the Subway wrapper that you left on the counter?”
And I deadpan,
“No.”
You say, “Oh.”
And I say, “I’m kidding. I was just in such a hurry to cut off part of my tuna sub to share with you that I didn’t throw the wrapper away.”
You say, “I’ll throw it away then,”
And I am thankful that I don’t have to get up off my chair.
We just go on and on and on,
The two of us.
Waxing and waning.
On and on and on.
We cover kilometers together,
And I love them.
It grows dark and we arrive at our house,
And you say the best thing I’ve ever heard you say.
You say,
“I can smell the moon.”
I can too,
And it smells like new lilacs on a summer night.
