Your smile is warmer than Christmas cookies
fresh out of the oven and made with love.
Without you, I am an empty floor on Christmas morning:
pointless, desolate, and daunting.

You are the joy of the final bell of the school year
before summer break begins.
The refreshing jump into a temperate lake
in the middle of a sweltering July.

You are rays of lights peering through thick trees
after a thunderstorm.
The fresh crisp air on a fall morning walk
that I can't survive without.

You are the rain hitting my window at night
when I’m drifting off into a deep sleep.
The laugh after a hard and much-needed cry.
The resilient and brilliant long recovery.

You are the thrill and excitement of an upcoming vacation.
You are a warm sea breeze and vibrant sunset.
Without you as my map,
my ship has lost its course.

You are gleaming stars that fill a rural night sky,
and the twinkling moonlight beaming down on darkness.
(always there, yet so far away, and never close enough) 

My love for you is endless,
because time spent with you feels so limited.
I am bottles of acrylic paint
and you are a paintbrush.

You are the glue that keeps me together,
But you are not the super glue that sticks to me.
For when you leave me,
I shatter and break like a mirror hitting concrete.

You consume me like the self-doubt at 2 a.m
when things just won't go my way,
and I'm quietly crying the night away into my pillow.

You are the one perfect seashell I found
when the tides were high, and the water was rough.