FREE VERSE Poem: Saltwater Psalms: Chapbook, by Margaret Bailey Hayes

I want to melt into the earth
Be the water dripping through your hands
Whispering in your brow
Touching the sky on the horizon

I want to be the blade of grass
Dancing every worship to the wind

I want bees to nestle
Themselves within me
The mistletoe young lovers
Kiss themselves under

I want to be

I want to greet every morning
The first to see the clouds
I want the sun to beat at my back
And wake up every curve

I want the sky to rain down
And frost to whistle and crack and scrape
And hold every inch of the earth

The first time I saw the arch of your back
I had proof the earth was round

She was a church –
I was ‘always late to’
Breakfast in bed
French-toasted-ain’t-no-challah-back-girl
And strawberry wine
This was also an altar
Lazy Sundays and
Cold pressed on ice
Bare feet on wintered marble
We were the only heat in our house.

I’ll recognize you in every lifetime, love.
I’m the finder, you’re you.
You’re the spark, I’m kerosene and dreams.
You’re my firecracker heart
Sleepy eyed with moon dust and stars
Freckle faced and fireflies lead me to you
On every journey you choose to go on
I want to give you smile lines and laugh lines
I celebrate every paradiddle of your heart
You forget yourself?
We go find you.
You’re in music and melody and rhapsody and jazz
You’re in the long pause of the argument where you’re
right
You’re in that cuppa cuppa coffee all night
You’re carnival season, babe.
Blue lightning and Mardi Gras Magic.
I’m just here catching shoes
Waiting on you.