You laugh at
my late night forays
for a bowl of raisin bran
and my delighted crunching,
at me hiding
from the morning
underneath my pillow,
knowing if I sing
in the shower
I am happy
and it will be a good day.
And if I'm not, to start
the coffee percolating.
Chuckling to yourself
when I am clumsy
or shy
you love me despite
my shortcomings
that I see
glaring from my silvered reflection
and kiss my tears away
when the pain of all the hardness
of living gets me down.
You hold my soul, tenderly
safe inside the strong warmth
of your hands
and though you tease
there is always unspoken love
behind your voice.
You believe more adamantly in me
than I have ever hoped for myself;
you think me stronger than I have
ever thought I could be.
You kiss me good morning
despite my dragon breath
and Medusa hair,
brushing it away from
my sleepy eyes
you love me best
-I think-
when I am at my worst
mussed and tumbled
in the sheets
and forever I will hold
closest inside my memories
the morning I woke to find
you staring down at me
watching me softly
while I was sleeping
and embarrassed I tried
to hide away, but inside
my heart trilled
"this is love!"
I feel at home
inside your arms
in the way that no
four walls could ever
make a building
into the home I have
when I am with you
and am so barren -
a hollow void without.
You watch with an
amused smile as I
leap headlong
into projects twice my size
and stand behind
every scheme I somehow
manage to conjure.
When I fall, when I crash,
a spectacular spiral
out of control,
blazing inferno,
desperate deluge,
you quietly help me
back to my feet
with words of
encouragement,
wise and firm.
Every day you ask,
then wait
to hear what words
I have to speak
not shutting me out
but listening
never tiring of me when
all the world has told me
again and again
to be quiet.
But you want all of it:
the cynicism,
the humor,
the gossip,
the anger,
the laughter,
the rainstorms
that come and go
and somehow leave
me in sunshine again
in their wake. And for
all of this, a kiss goodbye
every morning is your fee,
a small toll I must pay for
a greeting at the door each
night as I arrive, bedraggled,
carrying the weight of
everyone's everything
hunching my shoulders
and dimming my light
yet somehow inside your
embrace it slides away
troubles forgotten
melting as snowflakes
in July sunshine
and home becomes
wherever you are.
When you let me slide
my frigid toes underneath your legs,
protesting half-heartedly, but settling
over them like an Emperor
penguin guarding his egg,
when you squeeze over so I can
slip in beside you on the couch,
tucking me under the blankets,
the steaming cup of coffee
just the way I like it though,
mischievously, after you turn my shower
to freezing cold, you hand to me
along with a towel, unless you've
chosen to hide them all!
The moments when we
laugh at a joke secretly
contained only between us,
when every chore is
made into a game,
pushing me on the cart
through the aisles,
and rocking out while
cleaning house, singing
our hearts out. On date
night, when you have this
look you cast over me
and I suddenly feel as though no
woman on earth could
be more beautiful than
you find me to be,
when your hand reaches
for mine on a long drive home,
holding pinkies,
and when you chide me
for singing your part in our
duets, when you fight for
me against the world
and run your fingertips
along the edges
of my fingernails,
when your blue eyes look through
the mask I've painted on to the rest
of the world, though yours strip me bare -
all of me revealed, inside of the
unconditional acceptance
that shines from them
I think I cannot possibly
love you any more than I do.
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