This is what I want

You might think me utterly selfish
But let me spell out what I want
When you come up to me, lean in
Draw your body into mine, into my space
Be close to me, closer than anyone else
Surrender yourself each time to be mine
Touch me like you're conveying a secret
Let your hand rest on my arm or my chest
Gently and complacently like it's sure
It's home and it's where it should be
Whenever we part and I let go of your hand
Clutch it for a second, so tight it hurts
As though protesting and saying you can't live
Won't survive my absence but you'll try
Whisper in my ear in all of your tongues
I want your warm hissing breath there
Feel my skin tingle as your voice spreads
Spreads and vibrates through my entire frame

Develop a profound weakness for me

Make it your greatest fault, make me your folly
Covet me humanly, like you just cannot help it
Like it's a base urge, madness, fate, or disease
When you're mad I want you to glare at me
Like you can instantly end me right there
Scream your lungs out if you feel you have to
That means whatever I did or said pierced you
That means I got close enough to cut so deep

Look at me when a crowd of strangers

Guards the distance that separates us
Make me the awkward object of your gaze
Make me unable to utter a single word
Seeing only that you are there, there you are
The one thing necessary, the one thing I want
Now it's all there silent, it's all there implied

You, whoever you are

Come to me
You don't know it yet but I'm yours
All that I am: All of this:
This cumbersome collection
Of a past that's never past
Of a future that's no future
Yours and yours alone

I'm not talking about destiny
I don't imagine us to have been matched in heavenly time
Or conjoined like pure souls before birth
Not of love at first sight either
All that purported magic
The conjured fireworks of provoked passion
They are more what we desperately desire

I have not seen you nor have you me
I imagine there's a tenderness in the lines of your face
A light in the wild darkness of your eyes
A quietness in the fierceness of your down-turned lips
Fire at the edges of your sandy hands

Come to me
Find me--I'm tired of waiting
And looking for you in the passing blur of faces
In glances that last a couple of seconds longer
In smiles, naturally naive, generously given, or unsure
Find me in some forgettable everyday moment
On the busy bus or in the lonely library
That fruit stand on the corner I frequent
The streets that know the weight and levity of my steps
In the solitude of reading and keeping silent

Come to me
Find me--and in the beginning it will all be precarious
You'll only recognize me in knowing me
Staying close enough to feel the prick
Of the spikes I've grown all around me
I'm sure too that I won't be sure if it's really you
A slowly broadening smile might be a clue
The lingering scent of your hair
The quick shy and daring looks
The small insignificant speech of skin upon skin

Come to me
Find me--I'll be nowhere but here
Eager to promise you world enough and time
To try and fail and be forgiven
And transgress again, again, and again with you
You, whoever you are