I Love You

by Taylor Byas

There was so much room for it, there in that king bed. My hand on your chest in that quiet morning hour, I could have roused you with it, plucked you from your sleep as it rattled in me like a cough. I could have said it then, left it in the sheets for the cleaning crew to snatch up and drop in the laundry cart for cleaning. When you finally stirred, a slit of sunlight knifing a scar on your face, I couldn’t say it. Where would you have put it when you got home, kissed your wife?

Taylor Byas (she/her) is a Black poet and essayist. She currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio where she is a second year PhD student and Albert C. Yates Scholar at the University of Cincinnati studying poetry. She is also a reader for both The Rumpus and The Cincinnati Review, and the Poetry Editor for FlyPaper Lit. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in New Ohio ReviewThe JournalGlass PoetryBorderlands Texas Poetry Review, Hobart, Pidgeonholes,The Rumpus, and others. She has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, Best New Poets 2020, six Best of the Net nominations, and is the 1st Place Winner of the 2020 Poetry Super Highway Contest. You can find her on Twitter @TaylorByas3.