How do I love thee? Secretly, silent.
I press kissed fingertips into your palms
And trace my love into your sleeping chest.
I whisper words against your collarbone
And hope you feel, but do not hear, my love.
This aching, unspoken devotion moves
Through my body, races in my heart, speeds
To my lips and balances on my tongue.
It threatens to burst forth, threatens to cry,
“I have loved you always!” Be still, my tongue.
I long to love you loudly, but silence
Is my current companion. I cannot
Speak until I am spoken to, cannot
Love aloud until you have loved me first.