“How is your heart?”
Which, I swear, is a way to say I love you.
Reginald Dwayne Betts
i have been waiting to write you
till there were words concrete enough
to welcome my hand to write
all day i will stare at words
and all day i will think of you
what you would make of these arrangements
i will consider the flames i have lit,
i will consider ways to nourish the embers
and the many ways the world will drown them
i imagine laying with you in mourning,
imagine multiplying the definition of lay against itself,
the grief and the desire taking out from the knees
what you redefine for me in language
i have craved for uncounted lifetimes
since before english dropped thee & thine
the only way i have found to write you is admission;
every time i lay my body down i wonder,
how is your heart?
Elizabeth Ellson (she/her) is a midwesterner who has transplanted firmly into the eastside of Los Angeles. She is the host of I Offer Poetry, a podcast that aims to share poetry the way we share music: fluidly and accessibly. She was recently published in Blue River Review and is a sucker for 80’s love songs | @ellsonelizabeth | http://www.elizabethellson.com/