enough

katie wilke

little things
love doesnt need to be this big thing even though it is what i mean is love doesnt need to be these big, romantic gestures,

because sometimes little things make your hearts click together little things like offering a girl pineapple slices or breaking a boys glasses like saying i love you when it should be too soon but feels years too late love doesnt need to be this big thing so when youre scared because it isnt

pillow talk
in the dark with your body pressed against mine, you ask me questions because you want to know my mind want to know me and not just the face you see you ask me things like what is your favorite color, food, embarrassing memory, etc. etc. etc. all pretty tame questions ever break anything? you say and i assume you mean bones so i tell you about breaking my wrist, the snapped radius and the misplaced ulna but you stop me no, like, broken something. you know? something like someones heart? and i think no nothing like that because im not sure if anyone else has ever loved me enough to be sad i left but i dont say that instead i tell you about smashing plates against the wall

for fun and when im done youre fast asleep.

no such thing
ive noticed people like things to happen in a timely fashion but falling in love does not work like that so no matter how many people tell you go on x amount of dates see each other for n years tell them to fuck right off because you dont need years to know that shes the one you dont need years to know that no one else will ever compare you do not need years to know that every morning you dont wake up beside her is a lousy one

you just need love that renders you breathless

and that can take seconds.

dearest
someday we will find happiness in the middle of a southern summer

we will hold hands on the fourth of july while fireworks go off and my aunt says at the end of the show guess thats all this year we will go to bed happy and tanned smelling like peaches and campfire smoke;

content.

things that matter

i. november, your plane was delayed and missing you ripped through my head one half accepting it the other half saying this is too soon

ii. halloween you almost left when you saw us dancing

pretending we were just good friends there was

more to it but i hated to watch you go drink away

your sorrows, so i chased you down iii. christmas we take a drive past ice-covered lakes ablaze the sun sets early in the north and its cold, miles away from home but we are

together with our hearts in our throats (this is why

our kisses were so divine, i decide) and i decide

this is all i need.

iv. tuesdays mean sunrises and doughnuts for breakfast

classes and lectures skipped in favor of cuddle sessions

(and were still learning something, darling)

v. i am afraid of things like dying in the middle of the

night, i dont want to die cant breathe, cant sleep

pills stuck in my chest i cant keep calm,

i cant and you take me to the

car, drive downtown where we walk until my

anxiety is gone, until we are both tired

take me home, carry me in

lay me down to sleep

vi. standing at the edge of a cliff its cold, and rainy, its perfect i breathe in deep this new life and youre on your knees

and this is what i know of new beginnings- springtime

and edges and yes, i wills

the poet
he smiles from across the kitchen table. oh, im not much of a poet, really, accompanied by blush that reaches his ears. (im not much of a poet, really), but i beg to differ. he does not write with pen and paper or words but he traces my skin with his fingertips and lips so gently, there is nothing left to call it except poetry.

when i held your hand

fear and loathing in las vegas was the first movie we didnt really watch. i was the one who

suggested it, mainly because of johnny depp and partly because a cinephile friend told me it was the closest i could get to drugs without taking them. but that whole evening was intoxicating, the closeness of you, your body right beside me. and the gap between us was begging to be closed so i inched closer, shaky, shy, shifting in my seat and you grabbed my hand like it was the most natural thing in the world, easy as breathing.

nathan
its all for you and once and you said it great the way we could just sit in silence but how it wasnt really silence so the days i run out of words and want to wrap my arms around you instead remember i am not speechless i am in love and you are love and its enough