Love Poem: Tender Conversation
Laura Breidenthal Avatar
Written by: Laura Breidenthal

Tender Conversation

She curled up with me on the bed, and laughed insanely
I looked at her in marvel, wondering what on earth had gotten into her
“Why are you laughing?” I asked my eyes wide in surprise.
She giggled, and wrapped her arm around me playfully…
“You and I…we’re just so different…how can you be so preserved? 
How can you be so calm, when the world begs for your bite?
How can you not wriggle your toes when he teases your heart?
Do you not see he has fallen so in love with you?
How can you not tell him? Relish him? Hold him? 
You’re so coy…so thoughtful….talented….so beautiful, 
And yet you do not see you can have it all,
You can have him as your own, 
You can kiss him, feel him, and melt in his embrace,
Knowing that you are worth everything to him…
Yet, here you are, with me, 
Sitting so, in your dark contemplations…rattling for life’s pumping purpose
With this silly, simple, raunchy, cackling little thing…
Rooting you on….griping for your successes…” 

I looked at her lovingly, leaning into her sudden strange hold
“We are different…and that is what I love about us,” I said softly,
Looking up at the ceiling, then out the window for no particular reason…
I guess in my silence, being me I wanted to look mysterious, 
Wanted to wrestle with her brain a little
“I am never calm…for in our world, we feed on not exactly knowing,
He surrounds my mind and soul with seductive kisses, 
Not from those heavenly lips of his, but from his very soul…
I talk to him him in riddles, not from my tongue, but with my life
I hold him high, not with my hands, but with my affectionate gaze…
In those moments, everything is neither his nor mine…
We need nothing but that reassurance….that acceptance….it is so rare it makes me rattle….
Because…that is life’s purpose, right there, in that ecstasy of soaring psyche…
In that spark of fondness, where our very hearts pump permission to ascend…” 

She smiled, almost sadly, gazing where I now gazed…
“I love the words you speak, 
I only wish I can see it through your eyes,
I am so simple…so dull….
If only I can feel the way you feel,
Write the way you write…
Would I be happier, as I seize life,
Or if I allowed life to seize me?”

“These words, they are yours, my friend…
As long as you exist in the divine luck of living, you will feel such reverie
Beyond the wistful want of touch, taste, and smell…
Beyond the grand grip of what brings you most joy…
Life will flow brazenly in your grasp, without need of seizing
Without a squeeze or a forceful grab for more…
He will be yours….and this will make you glow so beautifully…
You are much more than you give yourself credit for….
And, by the way, no simpleton cackles like a maniac…
And no maniac is ever dull…”

She chortled, smacking my arm, as we lay back against the single bed
And she fell asleep right there, with a smile on her face
Drifting into dreams… the tender conversation that leads to discovery