if one day you would wonder
why i kept on breathing, proclaiming
more than just your name and memory
french kissed until the moment i could no longer
may you remember the reason
why i loved you

in a lifetime struggling in the dark and my own lies
with you i wanted love to be simple: truth
so with more than just open eyes
i sought to see your darkness and your light
and it happened, the taste and textures of you
the colors and shapes unfolding in the wild
orbits of your lust for life matched
the empty pockets and spaces within me.
in you, with you, because of you
i learned to measure, mix, knead, and let rise
the recipe for a life of love for you.

on this day
if you remember my love for you
please, do not let tremors of regrets
ride with the beating of your heart
to break the outlines and shape of your face
i once held soft and gentle in my now absent hands;
please, do not let lost time brew poison and flood
the twin delicate shores of your eyes,
and please, not even a sigh for sadness
for not loving me like i have loved you:
for though i may have loved you first
loved you long after your own had died
in between, you did love me
with a love that was all your own,
born from your choice, in its own time

just as i have done for you with mine.