For Sheila,
Thank you for inviting me to your wedding. Here is the poem that you asked me to recite. May you always have the crazy type love.
CRAZY TYPE LOVE
I want this love
the crazy type love
the kind that keeps you nervous
part panic-stricken, part aroused
by its uncertainty
The kind that is as raw and as visceral
as the knee-jerk moment of revenge
the kind that makes you want to
throw yourself
into a ring with a crazed man
as if that would escape it!
The kind that is ruled by instinct
that leaves you stripped of pride
and dumb with wonder
The kind which needs expression
by every means possible
so that I would mark my skin
or exhaust my strength
because to keep it inside me?
- unrealised -
physically aches
The kind in which
thoughts of him
connect with
dreams of her
so that you find each other
in your wake
and continue your company in your sleep
The kind that is emboldened
by the rhythm and repeat of intertwining
The kind that keeps you drugged
and devoted
so that even a prolonged absence
and many antidotes later
never quite erase
the imprint of you
And so I hang
on your every word and gesture
only too aware that it might end
just as simply
as one wakes from a dream
And I am at once nostalgic
Anticipating that it might end
and desperate to prolong
the most I have ever
and may just ever
feel alive
I want this love
because I am afraid of this love
and I am afraid of this love
because I want this love
And so today, in sum of what is and what has been and what could be,
we simply say, “I do”.
