This Is My Favorite Part

This is my favorite part.
My heart trips, skipping beats like jump-rope.
I twirl your hair around my
thumb and it's new and
it's my favorite because
it never lasts.

I hate to sound gawdy and crass but
it doesn't,
and I know this well.

My favorite part starts when we're
truthing, and
like dazzling magic you
are just miraculously there.
I tell my secrets in pinky-finger doses
so's not to expose it all.
(thirsting
for the bigger story)

And you
kiss me
on the
crown of
my head
and now
it's just the best.

My favorite part is when I say my "baby don'ts"
and you say "I won't, I won't, I won't",
and your eyes shine in the light, flickering
as you dine on my lips
curling into a
smile.

I'll remember us best this way--
the way we investigate
each other.
The way I want to write this poem on and on and on
about us because it will
pass us quickly,
it will.

I smile sometimes when I think
of the way things'll sting
like a cankersore,
like a tattoo,
like burning hot sweet-tea.

You + me
will have to tiptoe back from this,
and our backs will hurt.
But we don't care, do we?
'Cause this
is
the best
part.