The Little Spoon

Tyler Love

The Big Spoon that’s what I am every night my whole life it’s what I was taught what society expects the male protects we are the big spoon the guardian at night holding our loved ones close so they feel safe knowing our place never wondering what it could be like in their place I remember though the first time you gifted me with knowing what it’s like to be the little spoon not the date nor the time but the way it made me feel initially uncomfortable as it was not my place having never felt this embrace but as I lay there I felt at ease as it swept over me warmth and love and I felt safe in a way I never believed I could I think everyone should feel if but just once the security of being The Little Spoon

Here it is, the moment where it all started before my hair turns brown and his gray as my skin lightens and his grows tan from outside work, ambition reaching high like the leaves of a yucca plant did you predict the way I would place you with a magnet on my fridge, in a photo frame, my screensaver, because you’ve managed to capture the love in five by seven inches

Nayeli Mejia

that has remained since you were taken with an old, well-used camera and in every photo we have he is holding me the same way his yucca-grip callused and leathery but pliable, and fingers curl and droop around me like it is not yucca but rather peony petals curling in, meeting in the middle the birth certificate an oath, and this is after he has signed the contract,

“I love you” on the line where they wrote my name.