Hug Hungry

I’ve been hug hungry for awhile.

Listening to the slam poets who write the best love songs I’ve ever heard

Punctuated with their gasps

Trying to spit the words out so fast

That I feel them across my skin.

And it’s only made it worse.

The ache down in this belly to feel your arms around my shoulders

Bury my face into your chest

And hear you ask me questions.

Questions that I answer straight into your heart.

And every time

Every single time

I think

He won’t understand this.

But you’re different.

You’ve got those pieces of cartilage flapping on either side of your head

But you’ve been listening with your heart.

So I spit my half sobbed answers out in your chest

And you hear them the best.

Yeah, I’ve been missing that.

Missing the way those were the only times I felt safe.

Where I felt at home

Buried in that embrace with you hugging on me like I was being pulled away.

Only because I’d asked you to.

Asked you to be there.

Asked you to hug me whenever I was down

And you did.

You didn’t need any reminders or please

No you were there regardless.

And in the space of 4 hours you gave me 6 hugs.

Hugs that weren’t over in mere seconds.

No, hugs that lasted minutes

As I breathed in your sweatshirt

And you rested your nose upon my head

And we stood.

In the middle of a diner.

In the center of a party.

In a hallway.

The mundanity of the moments

Punctuated with the heart beat of someone I knew really had a heart.

So I’ve been hug hungry for awhile.

Craving to salivate over those drawn out minutes where you whisper answers

Straight into my brain.

Because this mixed up boy is the only one whose giving me straight answers.

And winters come on strong

And I’m shivering all the time

And I just want you here

Here to hug me.