Breathing is better with you

Some people believe in soulmates.

I do not.

People are not fate,

we are people.

We are dumb,

and feelings confuse us,

and relationships are messy -

Carol Ann Duffy gave her partner

an onion.

So why do we say that soulmates exist?

We are people,

made of atoms.

When our atoms were created,

were they near others?

Have we found those atoms?

Is that a soulmate?

How do we know whether the atoms

near us at the beginning

aren't part of a star,

or in a bird's nest,

or buried in a sand dune,

or at the bottom of a teacup?

Even if soulmates do not exist,

there may be something

in love at first sight.

You may be drawn to a person

who makes you laugh

and makes you think

and helps you

breathe.

But you can not simply

know this about a person

at just a glance.

Maybe it's more like love at first

breath.

Because when I met you,

I knew

that no breath before the one

in which I told you "hello"

would ever be better

than the breaths that came after.