The Beautiful Years

In all those years

you loved me,

you loved me

for the way I smiled.

The way I smiled:

cheeks burning--

heart bursting out of my chest--

the moment I watched you dance,

and I knew then that I loved you.

The Beautiful Years that followed

engraved in my mind,

a million poems

I could never finish

writing in a lifetime,

because I loved you,

I loved you--

for the way you loved everyone

unabashedly, yet effortlessly

finding the good in all,

for the way your laughter

filled a room with an explosive,

contagious joy,

for the way you persevered

through failure, through pain,

you chose to push on.

Those Beautiful Years

filled with a thousand kisses,

a hundred thousand conversations,

a few precious minutes of holding you,

and singing to you while you slept--

worth a million poems

I could never finish

writing in a lifetime.

Shall I read them all to you

when we meet again?