is it beautiful to die in love? – Ethan Richmond

is it beautiful to die in love?
to dye love in blood
dyeing us in forgiveness for apologies that don’t yet exist
and the taste of wherever our bodies are going

however they’re gone
let that be each other
i whisper to my old friend
squeezing slightly at remembrance
or at the question of whether this poem will outlast us
it looks past us
maturely

 
surely uncertain in everything but the feeling
of eventual grief
that i know will ache in a soreness
that warms me
unwarns me of journey
i turn my face towards it
greet it like the sun

uncertain in how it will greet our bodies
sites of violence inherited as a promise
we are too afraid
to break
because we are
in love is labor
sweat and twisting your figure into the direction
most unnatural
it is labor
giving birth to a salted tearing you will taste
between your cheek and the fabric in the sky
and think yes
i will have you
anyway
any way
anyways,
to die in love
i’d like that

i’d like that very much