Today was supposed to be a lazy day. My intentions were to spend the day curled up, under a blanket, with a book on my lap, and a chai latte in my hand. Today was a cold day, bitterly frigid. Yesterday, was balmy and beautiful. The ping pong weather in North Carolina is giving me whiplash. Therefore, I had no desire to remove myself from the warmth of my blanket fort.

My brain had other ideas. This poem is running on a loop in my head. It’s been a long time since someone’s words cut me so deeply. My contemplations leave me no room to enjoy a good book.

“I’m not much of a love poet but if I was I’d write about how you have the audacity to be beautiful even on days when everything around you was ugly.”

This poem made me cry tears of longing, tears of sadness. This man describes his love so intensely that I feel like I can sense it or I feel like I can almost touch it but it is just out of reach.

“I know it’s gonna sound weird but sometimes I pray that God somehow turns you back into one of my ribs just so I would never have to spend an entire day without you.”

What is it like to love someone this much? How does it feel to want someone with such vehemence?

“I want to be your ex boyfriend’s stunt man. I want to do everything he never had the courage to do, like trust you.”

That last line pierced me. I’m still sitting in my blanket fort but instead of spending the day reading, I’m contemplating what it would be like to be the Starbucks girl on Del Mar Heights Road.

Excerpts from Love Poem Medley by Rudy Francisco