You told me you loved me amongst the crowd of a Steelers game while we were searching for a hot dog and soda. Not the most enchanting, but perhaps I watch too many rom-coms for my own good. I think I've always just romanticized each aspect of a relationship and all the major moments based on what media told me meant the most.

Opening my eyes now, those special moments aren't always at a candlelit dinner or by a fireplace, many times they are at a cookout with your friends or the zoo with my nieces and nephews. The beauty of feeling something so deeply that you just have to say it, even if it's in front of a porta ***** at a church festival or the stoplight on your way home, that's the real love that people feel.

So when I tell you I love you while sitting on my couch on a random Monday night, know that I mean it. Know that every muscle in my body wanted to tell you because I didn't wait for candlelight or an array of stars, instead I told you in the most real way, our way.

We will still have those romantic moments on a boat under the moonlight or the fireplace of an old house, but we will also have those passionate moments where we couldn't keep our feelings in anymore and the most appropriate place just happens to be a crowded train on the way downtown and an airport bar. I love you and I'll say it anywhere.



-t.s.

Tonight is a Terrible, Silent Respite
From The Cruel, Cruel March.
The Brilliance of Sunlight's Beauty
Begins to Scar With Cracks of Dark .
The Echoes Of The Universe
Are Few And Far Apart,
And In This Of All My Treasured Moments,
I Wonder Where You Are?

The Pillars And Foundations Sometimes Fall
From So Many Things That Were Beautiful
And Tears I Weep As Light Escapes,
Kneeling Before The Fireplace,
To The Flames, Whose Soul Burns to Embrace
The Many Broken Parts Of Me,
That Can No Longer Be Replaced.

Hugged by cozy feels
Sitting by the fireplace, I
Dream of you once more

Bats found residence in my fireplace
discovering shelter in
protective brick walls.
Cold fronts attack in sunshine absence
I want to ignite a flame                 but
I fear the bats will infest my home
                      a home the bats see
as an addition to my fireplace.