buttercup

Now it is a deep root that runs through every part of who I am.

At first, it was just a word, a few letters I spoke with affection.

Now it is something older than language, something my soul recognizes before my voice does.

Your name has become embedded within me like a star caught in the night sky.

So constant, so bright, that I can no longer imagine the darkness without it.

There are days when I do not say your name, yet you are still present in everything.

In my quietest thoughts, in the emotions I cannot explain, in the corners where the things I love reside.

You no longer occupy only a place in my heart, you have become part of its heartbeat.

In the same way that the sea cannot separate itself from its tides.

I cannot separate my soul from everything your name means to me.

Perhaps that is what it means to love deeply.

To discover that someone no longer simply holds a place within you.

Because without realizing it they have become a part of who you are.

We didn't rush it like we both knew something fragile was unfolding between our breathing

Your laugh was quieter then like even joy had to tiptoe around what we were about to become My hands hesitated not from doubt but from the weight of finally touching something I had imagined too many nights

The room held its breath with us Every small movement felt louder than thunder a shoulder brushed a knee leaning closer the slow gravity pulling us into the same orbit

You looked at me like a question you weren't afraid to ask anymore

And when we finally closed the distance it wasn't fire, at first it was warmth steady and certain like finding a light on in a place you thought was empty

We learned each other in whispers and pauses in the way your fingers traced uncertainty into trust

Time didn't stop it just softened bent around us so we could stay there longer

And afterward it wasn't the closeness that stayed with me most