i met you when love tasted like yellow teeth and ash.
i met you when kisses felt like cold cement and paper cuts.
i met you when company felt like a hand around my throat
where every minute company's grip was tightening.
i met you when kisses reminded me of breaching anxiety.

i met you - and love suddenly tasted like sleepless nights and sunrise.
i met you - and kisses felt like fresh orange juice and vanilla ice cream.
i met you - and company felt like hummingbird wings
beating 100 times per second.
i met you - and kisses began to remind me of all my favorite things.

your kisses remind me of candied rose petals and berry smoothies.
your kisses remind me of vibrating leaves and vocal wind chimes
(like your voice in the morning).
your kisses remind me of light refraction on water
and clear constellations.

so i'd like to admit that i've never loved anyone as much as i do you -
as i've never met anyone who makes me believe that it is more than just a
natural occurrence of being human,
that it is more than a feeling
but a force,
an alignment of brainwaves and breastbones
on an axis that holds time still,
in the warmest parts of your memory.
like your warm breath that melts the bumps on my legs
from the cold in the season we met in -
where love began to taste like morning dew
and feel like spring.