The things I’d love to do with you outnumber all my days.

I’d love to sing tangled up love songs with you, on a road trip to the Grand Canyon. All the windows rolled down, and our laughter emphasizing each verse.

I’d love to sit with you at a wobbly table outside a corner bakery, and watch as you try to extract all the custard from the eclairs you enjoy so peculiarly. You miss a spot every time.

I’d love to float beside you in a river, clinging to the same flotation tube, soaked by summer spun water lapping against our sun-kissed skin. Even your eyes smile at the freckles on my shoulders.

I’d love to watch the stars come out of hiding with you.

The way they pop out, seemingly one at a time and then suddenly all at once, (the way my love for you emerged) beneath the open canopy of twilight.

I’d love to watch your eyes fixed on mine, moving my face closer to you, matching your breath with my breath, your inhale with my inhale, your heart with my heart, until at last our lips brush softly and our breath is removed from between us.

I’d love to wake beside you, in the pre-dawn hours, before the hustle of the day emerges, and watch one another resting in the disheveled bedding, smiling at our messy morning hair. The moonlight has been kind to us.

I’d love to listen as you tell me the mysteries of your heart, the ones you’ve never dared speak before. The times you were uncertain and afraid. The thoughts that make you question your own sanity. The feelings you cannot yet articulate—let my yearning to see you, elicit them from inside.

There is nothing to hide from the gaze of this love. There is no corner of your being I do not already inhabit, no aspect of me where you are not found.

May we learn to love each other only from within the love we have for ourselves.

Perhaps we’ve had it backward all this time. The greatest of all is in letting it all go. Love can only blossom from our own souls. Let’s go and experience life’s exquisite fragrance.

I’d love to show you who I have always been; the tapestry of my being is woven by my love for you.

I’d love to set you free, and watch you fly easily toward your destiny. There is never a need to look back. We are, and always will be, One.

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Editor: Bryonie Wise

Photo: elephant archives