Forever yours h.s.

“I promise not to love you like an after school special
 and that my kisses will always be barbaric.
 At night, I will bare my neck to the sword of your tongue, to the punishment
 of your teeth.
I will wear the marks like a necklace
 as people stare at your lip, bitten raw.
My mom tells me that I watch too much 
television, so my idea 
of love is all smooth skin and 
5 minute commercials when I get tired, but not here. Not you. 
I will eat your sighs and harvest them in my belly until winter, 
until they ripen the shape of my name. 
I will press my hands into the wet 
cement of your ribcage until
 you can see fingerprints. 
I will learn your anger. I will lick your sadness. I will feast on your hunger.
I promise a banquet for our ending. 
I promise a parade of drums for the day you close the door behind you for the last time. 
I promise not to carry you around with me like a mistake or a pack of gum, even when I forget what you taste like.
 When they ask me about you, 
I will always smile. 
I will say your name and it will 
sound like “thank you.”” Caitlyn Siehl