I lose my first life to lightning,
of all things.
I spend the next day
racing through a field of camellias
while golden hour twists the sky yellow.
They are redder than red,
like the crests of your cheekbones
and the tips of your ears-
even your blushes are incredibly focused.
I'm so happy I dont know what to do with myself.
I wait for you as you stand in the middle of the street
watching the sun sink into a kaleidoscope of orange.
Your back is to me
though I feel like I have never seen you more clearly.
You smile radiantly into the distance.
I want to care about things like that.
I want to love things, too.
My second life is stolen by fire.
In the whirlwind of my return,
I find you waiting for me
with an umbrella and a smile
underneath the willow tree.
When I was younger
I thought there was a piece of the puzzle missing.
You make me feel like there wasnt even a puzzle to begin with.
I want to keep you
but I refuse to own a cage.
I trip on my way to take your hands
in the willow-broken light of the afternoon.
You laugh with your entire body.
It's like I have never truly understood poetry until right now.
You are the embodiment
of that peculiar space in between the seasons.
With you goes all things bold and brave and beautiful.
I've got 25 lives
but I love you like I hardly have one.

So....
You're 25.....
You've survived!
25 years and
more than 25 tears shed
over 100 times
25 beers
Not counting 25 lies
And 25 broken ties
Or the 25 and more blows to your sunken in eyes
Here's to the 25 + shovel strokes
To get you out of that deep dark hole
The hole you were birthed into
25 years prior
With no voice, no choice
No written down plans to escape from fire.
But you've jumped from that window of the 25th floor building;
Each story built
from each year
that you're holding.
Not knowing if you'd collapse
from your fall
Or relapse
or perhaps
even survive at all.
But you chose to anyway
Better lie dead smashed on the pavement
than go out burning away.
Took a long time to hit rock bottom.
Never dreaming you'd reach the ground,
never thinking of your feet
or that you'd land on them.
But you made it!
You've crash landed!
Took 25 years until you couldn't stand it.
And now you're standing up
for the very first time.
From the crash
and the ash
and you're feeling alive!
Took a dive to realize
This whole time inside
That you've got it in you.
The strength to survive!

I was never a hopeless romantic. I never believed in love. I guess things change when you meet someone. Now I’m just hopeless and romantic.