Twenty-Five Percent

I want to read you poetry
From names you'll never know
and maybe you'll get that feeling in your stomach
Like just before the perfect kiss
Like just before the perfect hug
Like how we used to make each other feel.

I want to read you into my world.
And take your breath away
with rhythms, phrases and run-on sentences
Whispered through the lips of a poet

Because I could  never scream as loud as you needed
to cover that distance.

I want to share with you
The one I will always end up leaving you for
Because I will never love you as much as my words
My pen
and my notebooks falling apart.

As much as I say I'm trying I'm not.

But I want you to understand
To feel To cling
Like this is your  language too
Like you could stay here with me and not settle
Because I can't let either of you go.