Poem: "Love Song" by Tiffany Nicole Fletcher

Love Song

by Tiffany Nicole Fletcher

I know

what it is like to love

an endangered species

you are beautiful and so vulnerable

and the world is not

on your side.

I watch you

watching life,

the things it has asked of you

the ways it has tried to wrestle

the soft out of you,

the ways this world has come

like a thief, to steal away

your days while you are living.

I also watch you resist it—

marvel that your brilliance is

so stubborn,

your will to joy so patient

and unyielding.

How do you love a hunted species?

Closely:

I love you like time is always

running out.

I love you slowly:

I hold on to whatever time we

do have,

and I savor:

I know the particular shade of 

chestnut brown that fills

your eyes.

I have gazed; I look deeply.

I love you with great reverence,

knowing that nothing is hunted

that lacks value.

Every day clouds roll in

but we keep the steady connection;

we manufacture sunshine,

we build our own world,

knowing it's all we really have—

we add kindling to our fire,

keep the love strong.

We press in - toward each other,

knowing there is a place we've

co-created where

the predators cannot reach.

I love you as if you are the only

and the last,

as if you're holding a special treasure

that I've been assigned

the protector of:

I love you completely.

We are the cherish and the worthy fight

we are the heart of the only meaning

and the justice of love.

We, the steady reconcile,

and the everyday forgiveness—

the seed that grows into

a towering shelter,

our creation, this love,

is beyond the hunter's grasp.

This love, an eternal thread

with no beginning and no end.