The Day...

I first felt you
There beside me
I had no words.
No knowledge,
No grasp of what
Would be coming next.
That was the day
When what I had ever known
Would simply be wiped away.

From those first
Mouthfuls of you
Gently imbibed
A breathy blend of
Whisky and intrigue
Distinct expressiveness
That wove through
Artful conversation.
All this;
Yes
You piqued my interest.
Touched me somewhere new
I was there
Present in the moment
Finding me through you.

An intense clarity in your eyes
Reflected me back.
Simple honesty
Uncomplicated
I was here
Engaged and willing
Something about you
Who, and how you are
Led me to share
Small mouth-sized bites of me
And as time carried us
Through that night
Our lives began to touch

And as that day
Morphed into those moments
That ended and began
Whitewashed working weeks,
I began to
Physically
Emotionally
Intellectually
Let you in
To places that even
I had never seen.

Subconsciously
Perhaps,
I don't recall the thought;
The deliberation
The question.
I knew I felt
Different.
An organic
Lifting of the layers
Began way before this
First time meet.
Smudged fingerprints of former lives spent
Traced their way across our written words
And cracks of light spilled through
The pages of what would become
This;
The Story of Us.

And here you were
Right beside me
This physical presence
A manifestation of
Those gentle nudges
As you questioned your own
life learning,
Offering
Acute insights and
Acrid admonishments
Of that once-little boy
Earnest and deserving

The day I first felt you
Inside me
Wanting
Needing
Believing
No falter
No hesitation
Accepting
That this felt right
No awkwardness
For us to clamber over
Part-pasts too painful to 
Pointlessly paint over
So we shared
What was right
Peeling back our layers
As we slipped silently
Safely into the night
Yes
That is the day
I felt us