HOW COULD I NOT?

Poetry for that movie in my mind...

It was not as if I didn’t love you,

Or could love you

How could I not?

When you were someone

I always was in awe of from afar

Not because of how you looked

Not because of what you stood for

Not because of those who were in hope

Of being with you

But because I could hear your heart beat

In your spontaneous acts of kindness

In your unbridled passion for perfection

In your child-like delight at small discoveries.

And because I could see your soul

In the way your eyes lit up when you sensed genius 

Or at times they threw sparks at authors of injustice. 

Or when they were rimmed with tears

In the face of your own failures

or someone else’s tragedy or deprivation.

How could I not love you

When you struggled to pull me out of a quagmire

When it was you who brought me back to a place

Where I could believe in Life again.

How could I not love you back

When you held on, waiting tirelessly

When I could only give you my hand

No certainty of loving you back

No promises of tomorrows with you

It was not as if I didn’t love you

Even from the start

I just didn’t see it, or was afraid to show it

But now you must know, now I can tell you

I love you, I love you, and I love you!