Born Looking for You / by Rebecca Tillett

I was born looking for you.
I was born in fragments, permeable and porous.
I was taught that we are each whole persons,
that we are not halves seeking to be made whole,
that no other body could complete our own.
But when I’m with you, I feel whole.
I forget the glaring omissions,
the vacuum, the conspicuous void.
When I’m with you, I finally feel like a whole person.

I was born screaming in your absence.
I was born with your whispered name on my lips
and a longing in my bones.
I arrived piecemeal with beacon eyes and a prayer
searching fiercely anytime the void became too much to bear.

I was born looking and 5,475 days later I’d find you.
I was born hoping and 10,950 days later
you’d fall in love with me, you’d finally make me whole.


Not pictured:
Las Cruces, NM, White Sands, NM, Philadelphia, PA, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA