love demands to be felt with every cell and every atom of your being- to be acknowledged every second, and to be heard for miles and miles. it screams in the silence and squeezes itself in between the empty bits in all of us- filling the spaces where the loneliness dwindles and heartache lingers, like dust upon the very top shelf in the kitchen that you just can’t reach. it wipes away the thick cob webs left behind by sorrow and dwells in your soul, igniting your flesh, breathing life into your heart and filling it with oxygen and hope until it pumps a fiery red. the color returns to the world; the trees no longer dull sepia like that of an old photograph- ripped and torn at the edges and forgotten underneath the loose floor boards in your grandmother’s attic. it’s a bright, blinding green. the kind you have to close your eyes to.
love knows not of time. it does not sit and wait, watching the clock on the wall tick by the seconds and hours. it strikes you like lightning, straight into the center of your chest and spreads like a virus into your thoughts and dreams, painting pretty flowers on the walls and tying lace and bows from the clouds.
you may be out for your morning latte at your favorite coffee house down the street, just like yesterday, and the day before that, and two saturdays before that. suddenly, you catch the eyes of the stranger behind the counter, whose hands have brushed yours every morning before, but your thoughts have been tangled up and set on repeat for days. you never noticed the scar that ran pink down the middle of his palm, but today you do. and you find yourself wondering why you’d never noticed it before and how he’d gotten it, and where he’d grown up, and if his parents still kissed each other good morning or if they even kissed at all, and if he’d ever been in love, and if he’d ever had his heart broken, and if he’d ever stood at the edge of a railing and if he ever almost jumped. this time when you reach for your coffee and his finger brushes up against yours- you feel it. it sparks and flows through you, flooding your cheeks, and turning the corners of your mouth into a grin as your eyes finally meet his. they’re blue, but not entirely. if you look close enough...hard enough, you can see the specks of green and brown playing hide and seek among the ocean of waves that surround his pupils. and suddenly, you discover that you wouldn’t mind getting lost in that sea forever. you’re not sure why and that scares you. but he smiles right back at you, his cheeks turning pastel pink against the cinnamon freckles kissing his nose. and he thinks back to yesterday, and the day before that, and two saturdays before that when he’d brush his fingers against yours- sending electricity pulsing through each and every pore of his skin.
maybe love falls on us by chance, an accidental design unseen by the eye of the beholder...and maybe love grows in the very places we sow the seeds in our hearts.
