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Jolie-Laide
By Stephanie Kemp










How can I love you so much?

Of my 20,266 days on this planet, we have only been together 189.

You aren’t even that nice to me.
I don’t understand you (much more than) half the time.
You laugh at me…

How come I love you so much?

I will never know you.
You never push me down (on purpose) but always show me how to get up.
You force me to laugh. (Even when I took the wrong bus to Neudorf and after I cried.)

I can’t waste words, or hide behind them when we are together.

You implore me to be quiet.
Oh my god how it feels to be quiet!

I wonder about you,
and then you make me wonder about everything else.

(And you remind me to use my manners, even and especially with people I will never see again.)

Parts of you are so fucking beautiful.
(Sorry, I know you hate that word, and with adjectives, no less…)
But I also, even and especially, love your ugly bits.

How will I ever write you down?

You will make me (want to).
Even and especially when I don’t understand the words, or the world...

Through your teasing.
Promising.
Delivering.

And because I will be quiet in spoken words only.

You don’t let me off the hook,
But you never twist me on it.

This is because of your history, not mine.

A bientôt…

I can’t wait.

I am going to start with y/our ugly bits.