How Love Feels the First Time

He told me to go get some Kleenex
and band-aids when he wanted
tissues and bandages.

I wanted to tell him
he is my brand-name for love.
When I wake up heartsick,
his name nearly drips off my tongue.

On the day we sat in a clearing
next to a cornfield
and listened to the breeze 

in all those trees,
he looked at me
like I was made of the wind herself,
like I was large enough to wrap
my arms around the world.

Did you know
that some of the blue whale's veins are so large 

that the average person could swim inside them?

You are not average
and you have the best freestyle I've ever seen 

so swim down my bloodstream, 

show me your best strokes
I want to feel your fingertips
grazing my arteries.

Darling, please don't climb inside
my baggage. Float within my veins.

Add your life 

to my blood

and I promise I will carry you, 

weightless, 

forever.