Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.

Here’s the thing…

I don’t want you

loving me the way you love you with

your overstuffed calendars and

empty carryout tins

 

I don’t want

love that’s squeezed in

between teeth whitening and that

3rd Starbucks before car pool

 

I don’t want

to be torn, worn

hungover and confused

the way your love leaves you

 

Love me as you love you

minus the spare tire

grocery bag eyes

bad cholesterol and

75-hour workweek

 

Love me as you love you

not the part where you

missed your kid, the one

who is misunderstood,

speaking out in that school thing

but you didn’t hear it because you had

to take that call from that guy

who was coming in the morning

to do that thing

 

Yeah,

I can so do without that

 

Love me as you love you

but I want no parts of

where you skip past sunsets and

forget to notice the wildness of

the Brown-eyed Susans that

randomly grow outside of the

home depot where you were

rushing to just

yesterday

 

Love me as you love you

but I have to say no

to the anxiety-ridden

pill dropping narcissism

that plagues you

 

and I’d rather not

participate in the excuses

and busy busy me-ness of you

that results in everyday takeout

strangers as neighbors, tightness of

chest and no rest

 

Love me as you love you

hold the judgments cause

I don’t need nobody telling me

to drop 80 pounds and filling

my head with not-enough-ness

 

Love me as you love you

with walks long and short and

really really good food that includes

asparagus and bok choi and red currants

 

Love me as you love you

with wordless music and

hymns you learned from

listening to the ocean

 

Love me as you love you

with a side of ‘you can do it’

and ‘your eyes are

the most perfect shade of brown’

 

Love me as you love you

but you know with compassion

and tenderness and forgiveness

 

Love me as you love you

hold the gossip as journalism

the world is one big sad scary place

where wolves eat children and little

old ladies run hustles so ultimately

don’t trust anyone save God

 

Love me as you love you

minus ‘I’ll forgive you but

I won’t forget it’

 

Love me as you love you

leaving out shoulda, woulda

and their cousin coulda

 

Love me as you love you

with no regrets or

manipulations

just right now in

this moment

 

Love me as you love you

offering an extra

‘how can I help’ and a side of

‘faith will turn this thing inside out’

 

I’d like a helping of

thank you with that too

 

Love me as you love you

but take out the body aches

and soul shuddering complaints

 

I want my love organic

no toxins, no additives,

no preservatives or manufactured

artificial coloring

 

Love me as you love you

with wholehearted resilience

a touch of courageous vulnerability

and a big heaping of creativity

 

Love me as you love you

with care and the expectation

of a revolution.