Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
We lounge in Plumpton on the floor. The Turkish rug beneath us is handwoven: flowers blooming toward the border, a proud peacock at the center.
I say your name, perhaps just to taste the syllables in my mouth.
You hum at this and stroke my forehead with your fingers. I'm sweating out a fever, turned inside out with an empty stomach and heavy limbs.
When you do not reply with words, I reach up to touch the hair at your wrist and think to myself about the flow of us. I love you childishly, with arms outstretched, and the vulnerable center of me exposed.
"Yes?" You finally say. You have a crisp voice, like the bite of a tart apple.
"Nothing," I tell you. "Sometimes it is just enough to recognize that you're here with me."
You place a hand, cool against my burning skin, on my chest. "I am here."
"You are here."
Rest is what I need. And you, with your sweetness deep as a lake, rest with me. You feed me soup that you've made; it's still thick, like a porridge, but good, warm, made by you.
You trace a bruise on my thigh, green to the purple blotchy center. It is enough. You are enough. I tell you without words as you move robed from the floor to the kitchen and back again. Tea, steaming beneath my nose. The floral scent of jasmine and the hot wash through my body.
You touch my forehead again with the back of your hand and your knuckles brush.
"Your fever broke," you tell me. You give a kiss to my temple. I unfurl with love for you like a sunflower.
On the radio, a folk song plays. I imagine you fingerpicking at your acoustic guitar: a lovely, winding song. We curl on the Turkish rug together.
The peacock reminds me of you. And maybe I am the olive branch in its mouth. All around us blooms a beautiful garden.
(Things have been very strange in all aspects of my life. I'm in a state of confusion and worry, so it's nice to write. Sorry this one is so short. I haveonly a little to say. Morenext time!)
