Jade

treat yourself 
like your girlfriend.
 
i don’t just mean love her, i mean
show her that you love her,
i mean bask in it. write poems to 
only your ribs. when she’s hungry,
feed her and make sure she likes it. 
if she’s craving chocolate cake 
laugh while you eat it.
 
love isn’t just saying 
“you’re beautiful,” love is waking her up
gently, is taking her seriously when she has
a problem, is letting her get angry or tired or mad,
is telling her: hey, it’s okay, i’m here, and we’ll get through this.
love is making her pancakes when she says she doesn’t want to eat,
it’s watching her favorite movies, it's 
keeping every picture you take of her. 

love her like wearing a seatbelt and like going on the roller coaster
even though you’re scared. love her like 
yeah maybe chicken nuggets aren’t the best breakfast
but you’re eating and that’s a good thing. love her like
there’s six dollars in your bank account but yes, 
you can spend it on your coffee. love her like
buy that ring, like save for a future together, like 
the first person you call in an emergency is her, to ask her
if she’s okay,
 
love her more than just on pretty mornings or 
in the light of picnic afternoons. love like 
sirens, like let me kiss the bruises, 
like yeah you made a mistake but we all do
 
like even after watching her spiral hard,
crying on the floor of her room at two in the morning,
her tongue numb and her heart turned to wood -
you wake up and tell her,
“it was a bad night
but you’re alive,
so you’re doing pretty good.”