Love Requires Above All

Love requires
Above all
You and I
Facing each other
Under checkered blankets
Laid out on squeaky beds
Like the king
And queen
Laid out
On checkered
Crystal chess sets
On squeaky tables
In foreign backyards
In mid July
Waiting
For
Fingers
To pick them up
Bump them
Into checkmates
All through the night

Above all
Love requires
Commitment of
Minds and souls

Love requires
Above all
Sweet droplets of sweat
Rolling down from
Your breasts
My forehead
Merging
From summer hugs
Cold fusion of atoms
When we cuddle
By an open window
Under the burnt brandy
Cue of a distant sunset

Above all
Love requires
A descent
A fall
Into vulnerability
Of our souls

Love requires
Above all
Fights
Loud
And make ups
Unspoken

Above all
Love requires
Warm bodies
In sleeping bags
On dewy pine needles
In early morning fogs
Gray and dense
Cut by chatter
Of owls
On old branches
Above us
And below
On trees
Between the river
The river coiled up
To the mountain
From the calm prairie

Love requires
Above all
No games
Just urges
Uninhibited
And primal
Just as primal
As jealousy

Above all
Love requires
Playful hands
Strokes of warm
Fingers
Everywhere
In the shower
Kitchen
And here or
Over there

Love requires
Above all
Illogical
Irrational
Actions

Above all
Love requires
Sticking tongues out
At each other
Like kids
But more innocently

Love requires
Above all
Small things
The wrong jacket
Maybe the wrong flower
On the first date
In winter
Cold
Colder
Coldest maybe

Above all
Love requires
Morning orgasms
I think
You know

Love requires
Above all
Crystallized winter trees
Illuminated by flickering
Street lamps
Guiding us at night
To each other

Above all
Love requires
Flutters
Skips of heartbeats
In close proximity
Or away from each other

Love requires
Above all
Smiles
That draw our lips closer
After couple of
White wines
In downtown
Watering holes

Above all
Love requires
Scents of each other
Lingering on our coats
From the night before
With hints of
Tobacco
Vanilla
And burnt remnants
Of the earth
Left from winter

Love requires
Above all
A jealous spring
Of us
And why
Prettier blooms

Above all
Love requires
Tears on cold pale cheeks
Pale from fear
The good kind
After a first kiss
A second date

Love requires
Above all
You in your room
Hiding from me
But we meet halfway
And spring into
An apologetic hug
Suffocatingly tight
But erection worthy

Above all
Love requires
Bluntness
Stress then digress
Of negativity

Love requires
Above all
Silver shadows
Of us
On tangerine brick walls
Holding our backs against pubs
Drunk and laughing
But at what
We don't know

Above all
Love requires
Children
Our own
Physical manifestations
Of our entangled bodies
Now old
Still entangled

Love requires above all
I die before you
Or you before me
Depends on who answers

Above all
Love requires
Flowers on our graves
Heavily scented
Erect
Maybe dead
Petals frozen
Like the rose
On our first date
Which I carried
With me
In a winter storm

Love requires
Above all
We meet again
Anywhere
I will wait