bottom lip, front and center

my older cousin called andrew used to say that if a boy ever went to kiss me on the mouth he would turn away because he'd mistake the freckle on my bottom lip for chocolate

he said that when i was in seventh grade and i still remember it

well it turns out that i had better luck than andrew because his eighteen year old brother died that year

and now i don't only kiss boys

i kiss girls too

the point of the story is that my freckle is placed sort of unusually

and i hadn't met anyone with a freckle like mine until i met my lover

we met back in the day when i was into angel numbers and signs from the universe

and i read in a book back in that lifetime that lovers with birthmarks in the same place are soulmates

and i thought

oh god it's a sign!

i don't believe in signs from the universe or god or whoever placed the freckles on our lips anymore

but i do believe that sometimes you just have a lot in common with someone

shared trauma with death and

a freckle on the bottom lip, front and center