I want to love like loving a city
Like soaking in the ocean, the parks, the energy, the sounds
And knowing that city will contain grunge and turmoil
Construction causing sleepless mornings
And nights filled with a spectacular set of stars
So that even the darkness
Lights up my eyes
So that even the light pollution
From the building that quiets the stars shows people dancing, and chatting,
and watering their plants.
I want to tip the saxophonist of my dreams
To sway with strangers and play percussion with my feet
With all the traffic and crowds and dozens of stories sitting on a patch of grass,
dozing off on Dizengoff
with bottles of store-bought beer, and ripped jeans, and a concrete fountain.
I want to love like a city
To walk through the noise and then
One Friday,
Get flavor-packed coffee and walk to where I can inhale freshly cut grass
And an ocean with five different blues
Forget my sunscreen once then
Burn my scar so badly it may never recover then
Recover then
Forget my sunscreen and play chicken with the afternoon sun all over again.
I want to sing to God on the rooftops, sunset glowing
Until Shabbat sets in and fills its peace.
I want to feel five different blues and learn how to paint them
To write them instead of fight them and learn each of their names
So that one day I can greet them like old friends on the boulevard, with the sun
Squinting through the trees and still
I’ll smile at them as I pass.
I want to love like I love this city
In exhilaration and heat
And joy, tea steeping,
Falling deeper and over again.
