Before You Walk Away

Girl,

stay there for a second.

Don't let your footsteps
finish that sentence
you started by leaving.

I need to tell you
what has been happening to me.

Ever since you entered my sight,
my blood has become impatient.

It runs through me
like it has heard your name
somewhere far ahead
and is trying to arrive first.

My heart has become
a badly behaved little animal.

It escapes whenever you smile.

I keep finding it
hiding somewhere near you,
pretending it doesn't belong to me.

And my soul?

My soul has stopped
following ordinary directions.

It keeps turning toward you.

I thought perhaps
I was becoming ill.

I checked my breathing.

I checked my pulse.

I even blamed the weather.

But then you looked at me
and everything inside me
started behaving like a house
where every light had suddenly
remembered how to glow.

That's when I knew.

Something had happened.

Something I could no longer
hide behind silence.

So, girl...

look at me.

Just once.

I have carried this feeling
around like a secret coin
under my tongue,
afraid that if I spoke,
the whole thing might disappear.

But I am tired
of swallowing what my heart
has been trying to say.

I love you.

There.

Three words,

and suddenly
my chest feels too small
for everything inside it.

I don't know
what your heart will do
with mine.

Maybe it will open the door.

Maybe it will leave me
standing outside.

Maybe it will laugh
at the foolish man
who mistook a glance
for a universe.

But I had to ask.

Could you love me too?

Not because I deserve it.

Not because I have
the perfect words.

Not because I know
where this road ends.

Just because sometimes
two hearts meet
and something impossible
happens between them.

If yours is willing,

let mine come closer.

I won't arrive
with promises carved in stone.

I'll come quietly,

with open hands,

carrying nothing
but the truth.

I come in peace.

I come with a heart
that has forgotten
how to pretend.

And if you ask me
what I want from you,

I'll tell you simply:

Your hand.

Your time.

Your honesty.

And perhaps,
if the universe
is feeling unusually kind,

your heart.

So before you walk away,

stay.

Let me finish
the sentence my heartbeat
has been trying to write.

I love you.

And if you don't know
what to say,

that's okay.

Just look at me.

Sometimes love
doesn't need an answer immediately.

Sometimes it only needs
two people brave enough
to remain in the same moment.