A Future

For him.

It hurts me to think that the world was so cruel to you before your path crossed mine. 

From minute one, I didn't care that you were 

young, 

and reckless, 

and full of ideas that I couldn't even begin to understand. 

You didn't care that I was

covered in scars from battles I barely won, 

and that I loved endlessly, 

but never even began to trust. 

I didn't care about your past that was filled with poems etched in the stains of another girl's lipstick, 

a past that was cursed by running away, 

but never being able to escape, 

a past that once left me for someone 

pretty, 

skinny, 

mysterious. 

I was too busy looking at the future I wanted with you. 

A future. 

A future filled with poems written in a child's laugh, 

a son's art hung in a father's office, 

a daughter's picture sat on a mother's desk. 

A future defined by running away, 

running away to find something 

bigger, 

something infinite that together we could learn to understand, 

love, 

cherish. 

A future that didn't care how 

skinny, 

how pretty, 

how mysterious. 

I have never imagined the 

future 

over the past, 

but I have also never loved someone 

in the way that I love you. 

You're the only thing in my life that's worth being jealous of, 

that's worth stealing, 

that's worth ripping out from under my feet. 

You easily could have picked anyone, 

chosen to indulge in the lipstick poems, 

or stayed to pester 

the skinny, 

the pretty, 

the mysterious. 

But, 

you took up the challenge of breaking down the walls of 

mistrust

that he had built up around me. 

I don't know how we ended up like this, 

but f**k, 

I'm glad we did.