Lingering

i don’t know if this happens to you

but somedays i still wake up missing your lips

like a good dream

or a misconception

i think i’m still sitting on the floor between the trees

and the bushes

peering through the leaves with you, waiting

for the people to walk by

your fingers are still laced through mine, your

thumb tracing circles on my palm

your eyes dart from my lips to the

people through the bushes, and you mutter

“so i really want to kiss you again

but those freaking people”

and i laugh and pull you down, wondering if one could

die of happiness

and, you know something?

you kiss like you’ve forgotten all about breathing

like it’s unnecessary, overrated

like my mouth is everything you need

and oxygen doesn’t exist

and, i’m telling you, you smell like warmth

like everything comfortable in this world

so i wake up and i still smell you on my sheets

and i still hear you in my mind

and i still taste mint on my lips

and, for a moment, i forget that this no longer exists

that one moment of happiness in the morning

before the realization settles in

is the only thing i still live for.

i am in love. i guess that's not very special, because aren't we all? but even still. it always means the world.

this love had to be contained because of people's hatred. two girls can't be anything more than friends, right? my hope is that in the future, people will realize that's not true. and that love is love.