Openings

Danielle Vermette

I meant to make a painting

of the womb in you.

To convey the heat

of your new want with color.

I meant to carry a swarm 

of fireflies to you 

to lend a soft glow to 

the cave of your quiet.

I meant to trust my mouth

to open again. To believe 

in openings, to believe a person

can become and keep on becoming. 

I meant to want 

to live in the sunshine, 

instead of where the outside 

storms match the inside weather.

I meant to make a place

for us and call it elsewhere.

where you could train your eyes

skyward to the overhang of leaves

and soften your eyes and soften your body and give 

into your body and give of your body 

and from your body, see you are 

the same as I 

the same as I

I meant to tell better stories

and take up all the space

in the room, to be as big as the house

like he is, to be bigger than the house 

I meant for you to never doubt

your place in me.

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