Melted Like Candles Together Poem by Jesse Ellsbury

To love is to surrender
to a person, to an object,
to an action, to a concept
love is like a time capsule:
we never know its contents
until time has slithered by,
until time has shown that I
didn’t know love in the first place.

Love is to become a member
of a close, exclusive group,
of two hands bonding into one,
love is like a top that’s spun:
we know not when or where it lands,
the dervish prophet sings its song,
all the colors blend into one
union where none is supreme.

Love is the language of a million tongues
all tied together twisting old with young,
caught between factory teeth.

To love is to be on a bender
perpetually drunk on another,
stumbling foolish for some other
love is tongues dancing on the floor
of a mouth lusting for more
reckless tumbling by dangerous teeth
in a soft red meadow lying still
with blue river veins running through.

Love is to strive to remember
where we dropped crumbs the last time
we needed to escape from a witch,
love is the past leading to and fro
between when we loved and hated
each other once we were sated,
we struggled each time we mated
and melted like candles together.