how do I know I love you?
a simple question
with more answers than we have kisses
and more reasons
than you have time to hear

your smile makes me wish for immortality
if only to see it over and over for always
and to be in your presence
is be myself
comfortably
with no pretense
or need for impressions

minutes spent without you
tick by slower than years
but the sweet promise of us
brings a secret smile
and a calm assurance
that leaves a delicious taste in my mouth

the way you look at me
makes everything in the world
stop and wait for us
and the way our eyes love to touch gazes
makes my heart hug itself with contented delight

I am stronger because of you
and yet weaker all at once
but I would not trade this sweet vulnerability
the sacred opening of everything I am -
I willingly offer it,
because I feel your desire to see it,
to cherish it as you cherish my kisses

I have begun to think of you
as an extension of me
another part that I have always searched for
and somehow never found
two pieces of symmetry
finally joined to make something
not just beautiful,
but destined.

And so when you ask
your voice hushed by the lateness of the hour
curiosity touched with wonder
how it is that I know?
It is easy to answer you now, love.

It is because my soul is smiling.