When My Boyfriend Asks Me To Write A Happy Poem

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“Why do you always write about sad things?”
He said to me as we lay with fingers interlaced.
Because.
Happy words get trapped between my teeth.
They make their way to the front, then get
stuck like those delicious caramel candies.
Nobody spits caramel candies out,
you swallow what’s left.
Because.
I would have to dive deep into the darkness
like a deep sea explorer and pull at
all the happy words stuck in my body’s hallows.
And that’s a long journey back up.
Because.
Happy words don’t flow smoothly. They’re choppy,
gritty, and forced. It’s like when you go to the beach
and come back with particles of sand wedged
between your teeth, your ears, your strands of hair.
It takes a while to remove the sand.
Because.
I love you.
I love you.

I love you.

Because the happy words are trapped
on a page.
Because doesn’t “I need you” express it enough?
Isn’t this poem enough?