forty-nine (poem)

if i could create heaven

you would be in it

i’d bring peace to your every ache 

and make your every plate taste like home

i’d be a gardener to your mind

pull the sun closer just so your flowers could grow

in my heaven you’re free

enough to fly with wings made of water

enough to pirouette across the sea

i would make heaven a place where you don’t need dreams

where your wants become possessions too quickly 

for your faith to ever falter

in my heaven i'd make you a little sweeter 

take you to my grandmother since you never got to meet her

bring offerings to her feet because the woman was a seer

you can find in my eyes what she gave to the skies

i'm guided by what she beheld

im haunted by what she gave to disguise

sacrifices she could never tell

if i could create heaven everything yours would stay yours

loss would be a stranger

your arms too short to carry all that you’ve gained

but if you wanted

i would stretch your limbs longer than roots run deep

pull you from one end of the universe to another

until you could hold even that in the palm of your hand

and we could build another heaven if you ever got bored

a place with no danger 

and sow good seed wherever we land

if i could be an architect of the divine

i would share my gifts so they could be yours

show you every step i take

so no matter where i am or where you go

your life would be paradise forevermore

love is the power to create.