Ripe

My soul is ripe with you
Breasts flushed like sweet mangoes too busty to sit still on anybody's writhing branch
I came to you as barely a seed of indecision 
Mocked by thicker trees and darker bark
Embarrassed that the sun took the time to notice me
You wrapped me in the flesh of your charm
Squandered your warm breath on the likes of me
And I stood still
I spilled into the crumbling pieces of you praying to be absorbed and clung to you thick enough to become the foundation of something I could be proud of
There I laid, wet wit your sustenance
Growing between the rolling of your palms like my grandmother's dumplings
Reading between the lines of your hands leaving scriptures behind instead of fingerprints
But every teacher tires with frustration when their student doesn't learn as fast, doesn't grow as tall and doesn't love as monogamously as instructed
I grew nonetheless
Living and breathing in new thought
Danced in the living room to the drum of your heartbeat
Took so much of you into myself that I saw your face in my mirror, along my thighs, in the curve of my wrists, and to the bones in my ankles
My former train of thought taught me that love is someone you can see in the future, but under your lesson plan, I believe love is seeing someone everyday
In every part of you
From every part of you
I loved my teacher but I hated him too
Resented him for the long nights he kept me up
For believing that I could be anything more than I already was
For taking me apart piece by piece even if that was the only way to rearrange my soul
My soul is ripe with you
My heart beats through the ridges of bite marks you left behind
I'm full of you
Overflowing with the smell of you coming through my pores
Your smile bearing itself through my veins
I am ripe of you
Even when I'm wrong, I'm ripe of you
I am you.  I became you.  Even when you warned me that you could never date yourself.


The ripest fruit fall the hardest.
I am laid at your feet, looking up at you, in a bitter punishment, loving you still, hoping that everything you taught me isn't more important than what this love is supposed to teach you.