Lexy Courneya
Flourish
➳ a love like ivy
the battered cottage
with its mismatched shutters and
patchwork roof
yearns
for a
love like ivy:
a natural love
that slowly
grows on you
until its existence
seems as obvious
as butter spread on
pumpernickel bread
a gentle love
that abstains
from dismantling
your structure
unlike the amorous
storms which
came before it
a healthy love
that requires tending, but
not coaxing–
whose affectionate vines
gravitate towards you
instinctively
(you mustn’t
persuade them to
come or to
stay)
such is the love
that you,
dear cottage,
deserve.
spurn anything less.
➳ the healer
lavender-scented
words drip from his lips like warm
honey, descending
into the kettle
of aqueous anguish lodged
within my ribcage.
somewhere between my
despairing heart and failing
lungs, tempestuous
wellwater transforms
into sweetened tea. his tongue
provides remedies.
➳ mitochondrial lover
mi amor, you may
energize my cells but i
am their nuclei
i alone govern
my bones; i can revoke your
visa anytime
➳ absent adoration (starved hearts)
to those with shrapnel
for mothers – caregivers who
leave their adoring
children hanging like
a fragmented sentence. to
those who cling fast to
human companions
and burrow themselves into
the chests of lovers,
suckling maternal
love from a wet nurse’s breast
fruitlessly; who wrap
themselves in body
heat and hearken heartbeats as
though they’re eavesdropping
behind tightly-closed
doors – attempts at inventing
a memory of
when their mothers held
them close. to those who always
unravel when they’re
alone, love yourself
thrice as much so that you don’t
grasp at mirages
to satisfy your
starved heart; you must become the
love of your own life.
➳me to me:
you are the love of my life.