Coling Gilbert:Step one to being with me

A friend from way back has become an incredible spoken word artist: Colin Gilbert. He frequently posts offerings such as this... please check him out and offer him support. And, I agree... this is love to me.

www.freecolin.net

Step one to being with me

Here is one of the new pieces from the book "I Lung You, Notes from a Clockbreaker." To learn more about this poem, this book or to order this book please pay close attention to this blog over the next few weeks. FYI: If you ever consider dating me, you gotta be willing to think of it like this.

Omnia Vincit Amor
"Love Conquers All"

The used bookstore where I live is so small, the fantasy
and romance sections are combined. This scares me.
I believe In love the way children believe in fairytale
endings. And that isn’t to say I’m Prince Charming. But I have
dated enough Wicked Witches to know I am ready for Cinderella.

I miss the day love was check yes or no. I miss how love
was "she looked at me from across the classroom, now
she’s my girlfriend." I miss how love was, "Do you want to
hold hands?", kissing her on the cheek in the skating rink

and adding a special note to that same Valentine card
you gave everyone in the class. I want to go back to the day
love was Jack and Jill - two kids falling together. Love
was pushing her on the swing set and dancing to Bon Jovi

mix tapes. Love was when she smiled you felt like Mr. Kool-Aid,
one big red jar of awesome. And yes, red was a flavor. Love
was crayola crayons. She was bright as yellow. When she was
gone, you were blue. Love was scaring her with your show

and tell spider until she punched you in the stomach and said,
"You are a very big fat stupid head." Love was "I’m rubber
you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks
to you." Love was being a pint-size gentleman, giving her
a dandelion you picked from the garden in front of the school.

Love never worried about being cool. It was your grandparents
giving each other a kiss every night when they went to sleep.
It was carving your initials into a tree, it was cliché, it was easy
and it was "You show me yours and I’ll show you mine."
It was Romeo and Juliet. And yes, love was blind. Love

was the hardest thing to define, yet you knew it the moment
you felt it. It didn’t have degrees. It wore no coats of cool
and practiced no cheesy smile poses holding beer. Love didn’t
need to get you drunk and it never said, "uh hey, let’s do it."

Love was never scheduled by convenience - "After high school
but before I graduate. After my freshman year but before
I’m a Senior. After I get my degree, but before children. I’m not

ready yet." Now love carries a date book and answers alarm
clocks. It earns a good salary and has an attractive benefits
package. We plan chance and spontaneity and keep sparks
and chemistry stored in a water tanks. And if we feel something

similar to love, we do whatever it takes to screw it up. The day I
met you I decided to change all of this. Being with you
is like having front row tickets to the awesome show.
Like an 8 year old winning at a carnival. You get me. "

And maybe that means I’m giving you permission to play
me but with you I’m like 13th place in a 10 person race
at the Special Olympics - I’m a winner just for being in the game.

I never loved like it wouldn’t work out. I never got my seven
minutes in heaven moment. And I know ’easy’ never figured
into this adult thing, but if there is still such a thing as love…

Let’s do it. We’re two steps away from dancing like we mean it.
Kiss me in the dark and I’ll pay a lifetime to see you smile.
This heart is nothing more than a giving tree that has grown
roots some like to call arteries. The smartest thing I ever did

was say hi to you. I would die for you but not to keep you alive
and leave you behind, just because I’m still a gentleman.
If you were in a car wreck I’d drive off a cliff just to beat you
to heaven so I could open the gates for you. Like Jack and Jill,

two kids falling together, I will be there to catch you. I want to
kiss Juliet on the mouth to cheat on you with death,
only God’s breath could compare to yours on my neck.
You’ve got me waking up in cemeteries. Finding dandelions

in the saddest places. Like you, finding a home in my chest,
they don’t know they’re not supposed to grow there. You
don’t know you’re not supposed to grow here. They’re beautiful.
You’re beautiful. I want to rocking chair love you.
Like two sections of a bookstore grown together lets live

a romance some will call fantasy. Like Jack and Jill,
but cut out the falling and catching and just let me hold you.
Like two Crayola crayons, you yellow and me blue…
melt into me. Let’s be green forever.