By Miko Reed Collins
PROMPT — Despite ...
I love you
Beyond cancer
Beyond belief
Beyond grief
Even when I’m in disbelief
I love you
Beyond pain
I love you
Beyond defeat
Beyond choices
Splattered Heartaches
Gushing from my orifice
Scattered echos
Hearts breaking like divorces
Beyond thoughts
I love you
Love Is Stronger Than Death
I love you consistently
You know
Efficiently
Take note
Like mathematical memory
Rote
Like the sapphire chakra on my arm
Devote
Eternally
Like fuck cancer
Let my love be the antidote
I love you like…
Like I tell myself
How I should love myself
Unconditionally
With peace
And strength
And warmth
And patience
And grace
Like warm syrup oozing down my mamas pancakes on winter mornings
I love you like
Like
I wish wealth and good health upon myself and you
Instead of cancer and pain and your untimely death-as if- any death is timely
But this…this death that I still love beyond
This was different…is different
This one pains and guts my soul
Tore our family apart
Bought our family together
Juxtaposed
I love you
Concrete rose
Because love is stronger than death
I weep
Took a piece of your grandsons heart
I weep
But between weeping I’m whispering
I love you
You’re no longer on this earth but I love you more than life
I hurt
And between hurting I whisper I love you
I realize
That love- (Love Dad)
Love is the only social construct stronger than death
Stronger than physical self
Flawless
It is all that is left
Love
Because love resides in your spirit that hovers above me in Angel numbers
And full moons
And clear skies opening after a rain
Hovering over the stadium of a Washington Football Team game
Like birthday numbers coming out of a midday lottery
Messiah Maintain
Pain tucked inside like bleeding funeral florals dying on my kitchen table
Cain and Able
Dripping on my words as I read childhood fables
To him
Seeping thru my arteries as I try to keep a childhood stable
For her
Beyond trust
I love you
Beyond Agape'
I love you
Embryonic Symbiosis
Because underneath it all it’s perfect dust- Everything Dad
Every little piece
It’s perfect us
A father is half of the air that their children breathe
It’s axiomatic
Believe
I love you
Beyond cancer
I love you
Beyond belief
Even when I’m in disbelief
Your hand in mine as you draw your last breath
Bequeathing your soul as it leaves your mortal self
I love you…
My Daddy, My Messiah
I love you
Beyond death
Miko Reed Collins is a native Washingtonian, retired Army Veteran, and has been writing poetry for over 20 years. She completed a spoken word album, titled Eargasms in 2002, finished her Executive Masters in Leadership from Georgetown University in 2019, and became an Amazon bestseller of her new book, Eggshells In Soft Black Hands, August 2021. She is a mom of two sweetie pies, Madison, age 16, and Mason, age 8. Miko writes from Bowie, MD.