Love

if i don't tell you,
can't look you in the eye
-split and splintering
-sputtering on the inside,
if Hallmark cannot say it
won't punch out my non-paper doily heart
if i can't pluck it out
off your cotton shirt
(pill)
if i can't sing long enough
for my lungs to weaken to bursting

if i can't

then know this
that your inscription on my hands
your circumcision on my heart
your piercing in my ear
your law on my forehead--
has not come off
since the day you
came and bought
me
saying
like you did on that day
that
i ________________be
_________________long
to you
and i _____________am
_________________my beloved's.

and when

i've felt the cool dew blades

of the greenest grass

stretching across time's acre

then maybe

i'll know what to say