"Wasabi" by Andrea Gibson

 Spoken-word has always been an interesting form of poetry. People do not hold many poetry slams where I live, so the internet serves as my source of spoken-word poetry.

Here is a spoken-word poem entitled "Wasabi", written and performed by Andrea Gibson, which I found on tumblr. It is a beautifully written and performed piece!

“Wasabi” by Andrea Gibson

The plan was to play hard to get, that’s right.

I wasn’t just gonna go giving myself away, I’m no easy catch.

Can you really see me in fishnets? No.

I always find myself slipping out the holes,

swimming back out to sea.

I’d never been anybody’s sushi roll.

But she has lips like wasabi.

My eyes water every time we kiss.

Makes me wish we had a porch swing

and a little home

Makes me wish I could right wrongs

instead of poems

The heart is a bullet that’s terrified of blood

Love is a windshield wiper in a hurricane;

Nothing is ever clear

You mistake her name for the moon

Mistake porch lights for the stars

And sometimes they are.

Her constellations lead me home

Ten thousand shades of open

And if there’s one thing in this world

I’ve ever known for sure it’s that this girl

is gonna crush me like a small bug,

leave me so freaking broken there’ll

be body bags beneath my eyes

from nights I cried so hard the stars died

but I’m like, go ahead, I’m all yours.

I would kiss you in the middle of the ocean during a lightning storm

cause I’d rather be left for dead than left to wonder 

what thunder sounds like.

I’m not looking for someone who can save me

Liferafts might keep you afloat but they rarely get you anywhere 

and I’ve got places I want to go. 

So break me in two, peel back my ribcage and 

cover every page of my heart with love poems 

that you will burn someday.

The most fertile lands were built by the hands of volcanoes

And I want to know what grows beneath the drone of

hallmark and roses.

I want your goodbye to feel like explosives.

Your lips a burning building without fire escapes,

Your hips the gates of hell if I know if heaven exists,

but this will do just fine.

And I want to feel you like lifelines on the palms of Jesus 

when the nails went through

Is that really, really creepy?

Just in case it is, let me also say that I want you

sleepy-eyed in the morning waking at my side

like a warm summer sky born from

so much softness the horizon cries every time

night fall comes to take you.

Let me also say that I want to make you sandwiches and soup,

and peanut butter cookies—though, the truth is,

peanut butter is actually really bad for you ‘cause they

grow peanuts in old cotton fields to clean the toxins out 

of the soil—but hey, 

you like peanut butter and I like you.

Let me also say I’ve never seen anything more gorgeous 

than you were that night,

the moon bending through the window blinds

I told time by the light casting shadows across your face

while you told me the story. 

My grandparents were married for 63 years.

On the day my grandfather died, he laid in bed and said

Nothing but love love love love 

then he puckered his lips and kissed my 

grandmother for the last time.

Love love love

Love is like sunshine. Sometimes you have to get burned

to know you were there, I want to know that I’m here.

Every single part of me—my heart open as

the river’s eyes the first time it sees the ocean.

My God, look at those waves.

Listen to that thundering tide.

Can you imagine anything more frightening?

Can you imagine anything more alive?

I hope you guys enjoyed this poem as much as I did!

Until always,

Lemonjuicesodapop