Who needs paper to declare what your heart can?

Who needs a ring in place of a loving hand?

Who needs the approval of government or God

when two consenting adults hold the key to true salvation?

 

Love is the salvation that unlocks our potential,

marriage merely confines it to one form.

But if I were to ever conform,

I would do it for you.

 

The thought of your mother who showed me kindness

becoming my mother, in law...

The thought of you in a beautiful white dress

declaring your love for me

and me for you...

is enough for me to dismiss

my beliefs as something old,

something borrowed

and embrace something new

with you.

 

Our hearts will not get paper cuts from crinkled paper,

Our fingers will not grow cold as metal constricts us,

and our love will not culminate in marriage

but instead use it as a tunnel, a vehicle,

a mode of transport to romantic destination

as we take the wheel hand in hand

and steer it to the direction that we choose.

 

Defying society's conventions,

defying statistics.

Defying all that said this couldn't happen,

even ourselves in our worst moments.

 

And living.

 

Truly living.

 

Truly being in love.

 

Not a verbatim vow of servitude

or the ownership of one's soul.

 

But the promise to always love,

always live,

and always be.

To express all and feel all,

to invent, create and innovate.

 

But most of all, to be us.

To be us authentically

and to authentically be.