the words I love you

it was a gift tonight

leaving you in that room

as the fading light of dusk

warmed silhouetted branches of trees

to hear the words

I love you

we spent so much time diving down deep

into the quiet

while echoes of family memories

rose up between the spaces

filling the emptiness

oh so pregnant with buried feeling

I tried to leave my mind behind

Just for a little while

To meet you there in that open space

unconditionally

I watched your body breathing

in a way not possible

two weeks ago

at times it seems there is nothing much left

of who we were

and then I think that perhaps in time

our bodies grow distant

even as those deeper soul to soul linkages remain

connecting us with invisible tendrils

I smiled to hear the words from you

finally

i love you

thinking of how much

i longed for you

and loved you

at times I even hated you

but even now I know

that was love too

perhaps we will always be

worlds a part

and yet our history unites us

even as the winds of time

carry so far from us

all of the things that once connected us

once made us part of that

oh so mysterious

entity

called

family