As If for the First Time - A Poem of Love Rediscovered

 You stood there—

and somehow,

the years between us

bowed their heads.

The world

did not stop—

but my breath did.

Your smile…

not older,

not changed—

but the very same

that once stole

the sky from my eyes.

I saw you—

and I was nineteen again,

foolish,

wide open,

believing love could

rewrite the stars.

And it did.

It just took time.

When your fingers

found mine again,

they didn’t reach back—

they reached forward

to everything

we were always meant to be.

You laughed—

and my name

felt new again

in your mouth.

Like it had waited

on the tip of your tongue

for years.

I looked into your eyes—

and found

not the time we lost,

but the moment

we first met

still burning quietly,

untouched by seasons.

Your touch

was a memory

and a beginning.

A door

swinging open

to every tender thing

we forgot

but never truly left behind.

You whispered—

and the air remembered

our first kiss.

How soft it was.

How brave.

How sacred.

We kissed again—

and somehow,

it was the same.

But fuller.

Like two people

returning to a house

they once built

from dreams.

Your embrace

was not just warmth—

it was the map

to a place

my heart had always known

but lost in the noise

of living.

You said,

"I never stopped."

And I replied,

"Neither did I."

No apology.

No sorrow.

Just the quiet grace

of love returned

at exactly the right time.

Now,

we begin again—

not as strangers,

not as the same.

But as two souls

who have tasted absence,

and chosen presence

all over again.

Your hand in mine

feels like sunrise—

not because it’s new,

but because it’s eternal.

You found me

where I always was.

And I fell for you

again—

as if

for the first time.