Thick Skin

In the still of the night I wake To lay my eyes upon your face Fixed in my gaze You are beauty, elegance and grace and I worship you in a sleepy haze The sweet perfume of your skin Surrounds me Your eyes shine like pearls in a dark sea In the shadows of the night Glints of light Burn like candles in the darkness Flickering in and out of consciousness Your eyelids heavy Each blink slow and steady You look at me and smile  The fire within you burns for a while Until your tired eyes close again And I look at you wondering when They may open And drench my world in gold Warming my hands in the glow Of the fire within your soul You awaken parts of me That have been asleep For far too long Waiting for you to light my nights With your precious smile And I know when I close my eyes and begin dreaming I will picture every redeeming Quality, every perfect trait that you possess And dream of ways to express The way you have changed me forever Every day and ever...

I hang on your words Like linens on a clothes line Light and gentle I listen carefully To catch every intentionally Placed verse That slips melodically From your lips I watch your eyes Dancing from one of my eyes to the other As a smile makes its way to your face And the sun rises and sets as you speak Over and over again And I have never felt so weak And yet so strong Like I could melt at your touch And burn a city to the ground With a look Because you know my mind And you know my heart And when I burn you burn too And I will happily melt or burn for you Forever Hanging in the balance Between the greatest vulnerability And the greatest strength I've ever felt in my life In choosing you And being chosen by you I have been bewitched by you I long to be near you Every day from now Until I have no more tomorrows to live And even then I will still have love to give Even when my heart turns cold and blue It will always ache for you.

Skin is malleable It can bruise, stretch, bleed It is a home that we work to keep clean We wear our insecurities for the world to see Bear our scars From times less fortunate than these Cuts and scrapes appear on our elbows and knees Times when we fell When we faltered Or we crawled Revealing the truth of the battles we have lost With ourselves And those blessed souls Who happen to wear their stretchmarks With brazen defiance Who play and laugh and dance In the face Of those who might make them feel less than Are just as beautiful As those who cover themselves in cotton Their confidence or lack thereof is not an indicator of their beauty Rather it is the acknowledgment that there is work still to do Room still to grow into And perhaps more beautiful are they For they know the pain in the reflection in the mirror And yet they still wake up And strive to look at themselves and say, "I am beautiful." Despite flaw or some perceived shortcoming They nev...

Nights with you are sacred Whispered words And stolen kisses Cheek to cheek with you Chasing your hands Beneath your king sized sheets Always longing to be closer to you Waking up to you laughing Dreaming happy things That you’ve never dreamt before And I feel light Like I could drift away Like I could float free Of worry And just know The way my heart aches for you And as your eyes begin to open I crave the way you inch closer to me The way you nudge me with your cheek Finding my hands in these sheets And cradling them in yours You press your lips to my skin And all over again Little wings flutter And hope rises up in my throat I whisper, “good morning” My eyes are searching Wading through seas Of thoughts and words That I cannot wait to say to you Of things I cannot wait to do with you Because you give life To the butterflies in my stomach I miss you when you aren’t with me More whole heartedly Than ever before ...

I think about the mountains we have climbed Lines that we’ve crossed To be closer I think of ties that will bind Your hands to mine As we traverse each rocky hillside I think about how I stood beside you When you were feeling lost I think about how you reassured me Time and time again That no amount of distance Lessened your feelings for me For the first time in my life I felt faith In something I couldn’t see That I couldn’t hold I closed my eyes And I clutched my chest To feel my heart beating To feel what it meant to be alive And I cast my eyes to the west And watched every sunset With you in mind I pictured your face in the watery reflections Of the river I swam in with you I heard your voice in every bird's precious song In every cricket singing Warming my nights with thoughts of you And I think about the mountains I would climb To be close to you To bring a smile to your face To press your body close to mine To cat...

Clouds on the verge of crying Gathering the courage  To be vulnerable To cover a once blue sky With arms of grey And shed their tears upon the world Chimes that sound Their eerie tune In the haste of a sudden wind The leaves on the trees rustle The world quivers at its touch Golden arms reaching for the horizon Rays of sunshine curl their fingers Over the edge of the world Light seems to hum its way Into a new day Tides pull the moon from its pillow And wakes it to light the night For men on rolling seas Who long for lovers far away And sand beneath their feet All of these beautiful things On the edge of becoming Make me think of you and me Just touching the surface of what we will be Together and individually I am made stronger just by the possibility Of loving you My sweet We are on the edge of becoming.

Ever since I met you You saw right through The wall that I had built A patchwork quilt That I had sewn together A little dreamcatcher To keep the bad things out The worry The disappointment The heartbreak But I couldn’t help but move When I saw you I clawed my way through The stitching Until I was standing bare Stripped of my defenses And I didn’t care If I came out bleeding If I came out defeated Because I looked at you And I knew That you would be The beginning or the end of me And even if you left me in ruins People would travel the world To come and stand where we stood When the bomb went off When the fire broke loose Lovers cast in stone Holding each other as the ashes rained down They would come to marvel At one of the wonders of the world Because true love is rare When it stuns you When you weren’t prepared And people love to see that They stand breathless before two hearts Once strangers Now can barely...