To Love Me

By Anna Limontas-Salisbury

To love me, you best love watching the moon and the stars.
Know where Jupiter and Venus show up in the Northeastern sky.

To love me, you must love the silence of New York at 4 in morning.
You must love the corner of 149th and St. Nick at sunrise.

To love me, you’ve got to accept the look of a stranger
Seeking nothing more than recognition.

To love me, do your work, your spirit work.
Your prayers.  Your meditation. Your breath work.

To love me, love the feel of your bare feet in the sand,
The scent of the ocean and the setting sun.

To love me, bless yourself, your head, your heart, and the palms of your hands.
Bless the four winds and the four seasons.

To love me, is to love you. Like when you tell me I’m beautiful
And I say, “I’m just a reflection of you.”

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Anna Limontas-Salisbury is a New York City poet, writer, and educator. She’s been a featured poet at Camperdown, a poetry reading series at Halyards, Honey Dipped Productions Girlhood 2020, and Body Love Open Mic Series. Excerpts of her nonfiction essays were performed with COUNTERpult-Reading Series and most recently HTBAF: Honoring Our Ancestors by Open Source Gallery. She’s a graduate of Hunter College and Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.