Every Time

2011

Do you have stars
in your mouth?
she asks
and I laugh.
She’s never tasted
winter like I have,
midnights that linger
for days. Yes,
I tell her. Come see.

Will there be breath?
For a while, I whisper
and blow on her hands,
but you will sing
and the aurora lights
will walk across the ice.

She lets me
put my hands on her.
Will I die? her hair
like snow.
Yes, I tell her.
Every time.

---

I wrote this little poem in 2011 when I was first coming out and wondering  what it might be like to kiss a woman. It was published on Lily Lit Review which is now inactive but the poem remains online.

Since  then it's been republished all over the internet by blogs, pinterest,  instagram - in pieces, intact, sometimes rewritten to include a 'he' -  one tumbler post has over 11 thousand 'notes'. People discuss it, make  artwork out of it - what is it about this poem?