Thoughts from a Thinking Girl

The vows we made failed to account for failure,

disingenuous as dryer sheets hung for stinging wasps.

Love revealed at dusk, the thick veil

of swarming gnats over the still lake

dispersing and reappearing.

I commit to endure dark nights muggy

with love’s buzzing mosquitos and the way

your perfectly regulated body sets off insufferable

surges of heat and sweat, to stay until morning,

my skin cool and dry again, the lake glistening

clear, the sun rising, pink dots of oxidized zinc

and iron soothe the urge to scratch, quell

histamines from yesterday’s bites, render me

unperturbed, like that damned lake.