Love Song Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “Learning to Love in Another Language” by Haley DiRenzo

Once you’ve mastered introductions,
directions, small talk conversations 
about family and weekend plans

Once certain sentences form 
themselves with ease, skipping 
the stop between head and mouth 

Then how do you describe 
your heartbeat in another country? 
Dreams that weave in and out
tangled in two different tongues? 

How do you say, I want to trace 
the freckles along your face 
like a map, I hope I die
before you, I’ve memorized 
every moment even if not by mind,
by body, by my spirit tingling
at the recognition that you were there.