“I love you,” he
said holding me in his strong arms.
It was in his eyes and smile, love became his very essence.
Those three words were so full of adoring and worship. Yet, his love frightened
me. The uninhibited way he offered them, scared this discarded heart of mine.
I stared into his brown eyes, muted. What could I say. Watching his disappointed gaze, when I didn’t
respond in kind, made me ashamed of my heart. This burden weighted heavy on me.
I recall how he had showered those words on me like a
bouquet of roses, floated them around like snowflakes in autumn. Nevertheless, they were so foreign to my ears
they hurt. What did I know of words, when I understood, breathed ,were actions?
A slap or a punch, these were my learning tools for loves
rules. However, all he offered to me were his words. Soft words whispered in
the afterglow of bliss, when I was accustomed to shouts and fists. Simple words
repeated daily while in his embrace, was a mantra to tame this wild beast of my
frighten heart.
He said three words
so pure; they were innocent. Simple words that
seeped into my consciousness. Like slow thick molasses over pancakes,
filling the small cracks of my mind and essence. They followed me around like
phantoms in the day, haunting; becoming tangible creatures in the night,
daunting.
Those words were the slow vicious retrovirus mending this
broken heart of mine. This loving man, not with brute or might, but with simple
words reached me in the darkness that was once my heart.Love became the light
inside the stillness of me. He had reached for me, inside the storm in my past,
with patience and an out-stretched hand, to help heal me.
Now it was time I
reached back.
Free flowing tears fell from my brown eyes when I whispered
the three simple words he had waited so long to hear.
“I love you too.”
This man, so full of words, said nothing.
He stared into my eyes and smiled while shedding a tear, he
kissed me.
Copyright © 2013 Glynis Rankin
