Two Poems

"I Do Not Love You" 

I will say 

I do not love you 

until my mouth forgets your taste,

until I can wipe my hands clean

from our sins 

and my blood can stain a new soul. 

I will write 

I do not love you 

until my fingers forget 

how your hands feel, wrapped in mine, 

and my poems no longer 

reek of sadness and desperation. 

I will believe 

I do not love you 

until it becomes impossible, 

or until I begin 

to love someone new.

“The Way I Love”

I do not love you

the way I once loved without independence,

how I could not breathe without your lungs,

how I could not feel without your touch.

But I love in the way the sun rises,

without exception, without fail.

I will rise without your legs,

and I will feel without your touch.

I love in the way a ghost haunts the earth,

how they are never forgotten,

how you are never quite alone.

But I do not love you in the way you want:

for me to stay; for you to breathe,

for me to cry; for you to weep,

for me to love; for you to leave.

Killian Finn Paris

Killian Finn Paris (they/them) is a fourth year Philosophy student from Cumberland, Rhode Island. Focusing on asking the bigger questions in life, they write poetry to better understand themselves and their complex world of emotions.