We fell in love because of that lift home,

a pirated Strokes album playing, me glancing

at your lipring between turns. We’d already

grounded ourselves on music floes:

me a lovechild of Band of Horses and Florence,

you a mashup of Bloodhound Gang and Amanda Palmer.

You taught my body how to sing under basslines

from Arctic Monkeys. We danced to Jes Kramer,

kissed under a streetlamp. We muraled our hearts

with words, exposed the raw piano solos

of lost parents and childhood abuse; we bonded, trusted.

Wrote our own chorus and – three years later –

recorded the outro: our vows.

Kelsey May is a poet, writer, and teacher from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her work has appeared in The 3288 Review, Pine Hills Review, NonBinary Review, and Paste Magazine and received several awards, including a nomination for a 2016 Pushcart Prize. She blogs regularly at Hyype and enjoys drinking fruit smoothies.