"Your Winter Hair" by Rebecca Kokitus
in the winter you let your hair grow wild
and your beard grew thick
catching my every seep
I imagine us older, in some little house
where you’d kill the spiders for me
and I’d cut your hair like Samson
when you’re depressed,
hold you like an infant after
until your strength returns
imagine a love like
you shaving my legs in the bathtub
like peeling off the remnants
of your sunburn
like making you tea after dinner
with extra sugar
like all the warm little things
that we can’t tell others about
like the way you call it tangling
when we become a knot of limbs
and the way you tell me everything
you love about me every morning
and I know I’m drowsy
I know I don’t say much
but it’s not just my medicine that’s
teaching me how to
be gentle with myself