Lovebugs
By: Rose Cervantes
Lovebugs fuck in the open.
Kiss, caress, cuddle
On your patio, on your windshield, in your salad.
Intimacy floating in the air.
Vulnerability slithering around ankles.
Love, the question we all ask, the answer only some find.
Lovebugs also known as the honeymoon fly or double-headed bug.
During and after mating, matured pairs remain together, even in flight, for up to several days.
They do not bite or sting
Like the couple on the corner of your street who leaves Christmas up all year long.
Love on display, not on pedal stool, but climbing into pillow forts, hanging
from tree branches,
Love free.
Love like a child who’s never been told, you’re being too loud.
My mother taught me to love everything you see.
She didn’t say this with her mouth but with her eyes.
Wishing any type of love the power of a peach revealing it’s pit.
Dreaming Every type of love is a city in a power outage, huddled in rooms
with candlelight together.
I wonder how Lovebugs make sense of loving what’s underneath the light.
Do they squint their eyes the same way I do?
The way I love
My mother, My best friend, My dreams
The homeless, butterflies, and my dog
Are all the exact same.
They have different needs, but I’m the same in every version.
Draining my veins of every love droplet, I still haven’t figured out how living empty
leaves me so full…
No wonder I’m always craving more.
Do you show your love in plain sight?
Imagine your plea for love stapled to a help wanted sign
Lovebugs are addicted to car fumes, love, anD soulmates.
So many avert their eyes to professions of love,
Search out ways to get rid of Love
Bugs.
I dare you
Crack open your intimate
Tell stories from your childhood
Embarrass yourself
Take a shit while your partner is in shower
We are sex
escapades
love letters on the back of old to-do lists,
Weaknesses and dreams.
I am a collection of everyone who has ever loved me
Willing to die in the name of love making.
I can’t be contained in one pair,
So how long will it take for you to turn your eyes from a lonely lover.
Who will ask me to go? Who will ask me to stay?
I do not sting or bite.