【by Lily Mellitz】

Give me a love too harsh and too hard
with a fierceness that knows no bounds
so that all your parts bleed into mine,
so that your fingerprints and heart prints and soul prints kiss my skin
and we are never parted.

Give me a love too sudden and too soon
with a swiftness that catches me off guard
so that I have no choice but to trust you and your beautiful lies,
so that my weary, wretched mind soothes at your words
and believes that I am worthy.

Give me a love too fierce and too fast
with an intensity that sets a blazing path
so that one day I may tell my daughters,
this is how a girl should be loved
this is how love is done right.

Give me a love that makes the poets weep
and the artists cry
and the singers lament
and the painters fall upon their knees.

Give me a love that turns dawn to dusk
and haunts the moon
and cripples the sun
and moves the heavens to tears.

Give me a love that mars me so beautifully
and rattles the breath out of my lungs
and bruises me from its force
and batters me from its bruising.

Give me a love that is too harsh and too hard
and too sudden and too soon
and too fierce and too fast
and too great and too grand.

Give me a love that litters my flesh with beautiful scars
so that I may wear each mark like treasured jewels upon my skin
and be reminded of the depth of our love.

Give me a love that brings the sky to a stuttering halt
and causes the shadows to gossip and the stars to converse.

Give me a love worthy of my being
a love that even God would desire
a love that I can call my own.