I don’t know when love became a game
a chore, a tic on my checklist
or when I forgot how to talk to you
like a person instead of a warzone

I don’t know how to say I love you
without putting a disclaimer on it
without mentioning how difficult you are
or how many other things I could be doing

But I know I want you
in a way that’s new and embarrassing
like learning how to ride a bike at twenty-five
like feeling the sun for the first time
after a lifetime of rain

Tell me every terrible thing you ever did
and let me love you anyway
because it is no longer enough
to just exist alongside someone
to have conversations in the dark
or to fill the silence with laughter

I want to know your ugliness
and your fears
I want to hold your past in my hands
and feel how you’ve grown from it

We are not made to be loved
in parts and pieces
we are not made to hide
the deepest parts of ourselves

So come to me as you are
messy, incomplete and scarred
because darling, in this moment
there is nothing more beautiful
than the way you bare your soul