Like Oxygen

SUZANNE LEA

I want to be kissed

Hungry / Wet / Deep

Slippery and New

I want to be kissed

Red / Ripe/ Sticky

Sweet and long

I want your hands

Your mouth

Your words

Pulling / Pressing / Penetrating

My secrets.

I want to feel your knee

jammed against the inside of my thigh.

Your hip bones digging into mine.

Your ribs and spine and shoulder blades

beneath my greedy fingers.

Soft flesh

and jagged need

bruised

beneath the weight

of urgency.

I want to taste your words

Whispered / Moaned / Sighed.

into my mouth.

I want to hear surrender

catch in the back of your throat

ragged and gasping.

I want to be kissed

Properly

like oxygen

deep and necessary.

Sweet / Bloody / Brave

Fearlessly and trembling.

With complete certainty

and utter abandon. 

If You Choose Me

You can’t be afraid of me 

or embarrassed by me.

You don’t have to win a fight for me

but you have to be brave enough 

to hold me

when I get scared. 

You can’t ignore me 

and you have to want me 

even if I’m prickly 

or gross 

or really sad. 

You have to hear me 

and see me 

and smell me 

and taste me 

and still, 

even after you know all there is to know, 

you have to sometimes roll over during the night 

and put your front to my back 

and sleep with me that way. 

I won’t ask you for everything 

but I will ask you for some things, 

and you have to give them to me, 

even if you don’t think they’re important. 

You have to give them to me 

just because you understand 

how important they are to me.  

You don’t have to laugh at all my jokes. 

You don’t have to like my cooking. 

You don’t have to let me win when we fight. 

But you have to remember how I take my coffee 

and you have to sometimes put your hand 

on the small of my back 

when we’re walking down the street 

and you have to occasionally smile, 

when you’re at work 

or with your friends, 

because you suddenly remembered 

something sweet 

or dirty 

or funny 

and it reminded you 

that you still really want me.

And all these things, 

you can’t do it just because I asked you to. 

You have to want to do it. 

You can’t hesitate 

or be reluctant.

You have to look at me 

and think to yourself, 

“I could probably do better… 

but I don’t want to.” 

You have to want me 

just the way I am.

But you have to like me enough

to let me be better.