How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
you have searched to find me when I didn’t know how to be found.
For our weekly game of hide and seek,
vulnerability lurking in the shadows, just around the next, the next sharp corner.
I love thee for your tribe of giraffes that have witnessed my days become brightened by your warm winding words, rays of hope,
giving light, bringing life from the withered wimpy seed I once was, into the
strong saguaro I have become,
(Perhaps one day I’ll lose my spines).
I love thee gratefully as the deserts thank the rain;
I love thee quietly, as it seeps into the sand.
I love thee with the security of unconditional love,
In my younger years when both parents and I had unreachable conditions, yours were not.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
In the years of hate being easier than happiness.
I love thee with all the crippling hopelessness turned to hope and shattered pieces of trust you are putting back together, despite the jagged edges,
Of my life; and, if I so choose to feel fully,
Loving thee will make me more joyful in life than after death.