Mattress Poem Poem by Vonnie Postit

love isn't something you find
it isn't something you choose either.
it's something that happens to you.
not slowly, either.
instead it happens all at once.
that's why i only sleep on one side of my bed.
waiting for her to just grow out of my mattress, i wait. patiently.
and as my body sinks into my one, small
corner of the world, deeper, and deeper every day, i wait for her.
wondering if she'll be big enough to catch up to my depth,
or if we'll spend the rest of our lives,
with her sleeping a few inches above me.
a few inches closer to something called clarity.
i swear, i won't be jealous if she lives a simpler life, i only ask
that when she does come,
that she loves me like my body remembers,
and that instead of keeping watch over me,
she'll plant flowers in her body with dense soil
to weigh her down, closer to my darkness, closer to the curves of
my side of the mattress.
more than this, i ask that she'll find it beautiful, and that when we
meet for the first time we'll laugh, quickly & all at once.