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.