I want, to be standing atop a skyscraper when my eyes touch yours

My body a bottomless abyss of butterflies on the Burj

I want to feel their pollinated flower blossom in me when I see those eyes crinkle

You are like the infinities of the universe

Ocean with endless Space, and Time to wrinkle

 

I want you to have your own kingdom and me my empire 

and when we join its still two different castles just both reaching higher

I want to feel whole without you

But still feed my soul around you

When I question it everyday

I want you to remind me i can live without you

 

I want you to make me do things I’m scared to do

Because I can, and that’s your truth

 

The only time you hide your face from me 

Is when it’s caught between two pages

 

I want to watch you stick 

red pins on a map 

like you forgot I have trypophobia

Take our pirate ship 

to the edge of land, 

then see if we can go beyond

 

I want to create our own chaos 

Power our connection even though our phones stay off

 

I want to fight with you over whether a cat or dog is better 

and end up adopting both from the shelter

 

I want the sun to envy us

 

I want you to disagree with me 

and somehow make me cherish you more

 

The water next to my mojave

The shoulder I hate to need

The only home I’m afraid to leave

 

I want, to be standing two inches from a bullet train when you brush past me

 

I want cardamom ginger chai to flood my veins when I hold you in my gaze

Or hell I wanna forget cardamom chai when i explore your taste

 

Cinnamon clouds and galaxies of star anise

Filling my head when your fingers trace the streets 

of Ilayangudi in my hair

We make our own language 

Methuselah’s roots in anguish 

Wishing to be as tightly entangled 

as our limbs

 

I want to finally finally be unafraid to lose myself 

 

To not think 

Safe. Comfortable

So captivated by you even the voice in my head finally stops and listens

 

I want to never have to second guess

That every one of my thoughts, you catch from my mouth and store in your treasure chest

 

I want to bare my soul to you 

and have you look at me bc you know that wasn’t all

because you know that even when my tongue is flowing

I keep the lowest parts of me locked

 

I’ve never let myself fall

I want you to make me wanna jump

 

I want to admire you dancing in my clothes you look so silly in

And never get tired of picking you over 7 billion

 

I want to give you my trust

And that’s a diamond I keep hidden in the rough

 

I want you to hear this one day and know I didn’t even cover half 

of what I want to feel

 

I want all of that.

 

So how can you be real? 

 

This is a love poem composed by Nabiha Syed, a  Class of 2024 computer science major in the Honors College. In celebration of National Poetry Month, “186 South College” will be posting the work of Honors students every Sunday throughout the month of April as bonus content. If you or someone you know would like to share their work as a guest writer like Nabiha, we are still accepting submissions at this link: https://bit.ly/186Poets22