Tag: poetry

By Patrick Johnston

Next time when

if, I fall in love

we will lie, together,

my lover and I

and she will trace with

her fingers or her lips

and ask the stories

carried on my body

in scars and ink

and I will say, sure

here is the story

of this scar,

and this mark,

and this talisman,

and this incantation,

and this hidden secret,

and I will tell her my body’s stories

even as my body grows old

.

and she will nod

and ask her questions

and feel her feelings

even though she knew, already

that this body had history

.

The next time

if I fall in love

I think will be the last time

.

I have all the love in the world

to give

but not the time