three love poems
“Dear Friend, your Flower needs some watering.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
para mi flora que quiero, ta.
“photographs”
I bought a black camera recently, hoping
to catch a glimpse of your passionate eye;
dreaming of those black and white stills
of old couples wandering around
a rainy British town, I desired to feel
how you saw the beautiful world of ours.
My lovely friend, each moment behind the lens I
become lost in awe and admiration for the love
you taught me behind and in front of the flash.
how on earth could I capture divine sepia-tone
loving between daylights, sunsets, and cups of
chai latte? Would we be love-crazy to dream
little dreams of warm hugs and secure
nearness between romantically platonic
friends? How could we between the clicks
of our lenses and the radiance emanating
from our star-cross lover, eyes forget
our brief lifetime of love?
“dreams”
As we were ending our call,
you asked me if I ever dreamed
a little dream of you before I turned in;
of course, because frankly, it’s you
on my mind like a tornado flying around
my room, right before you came.
As I go to bed each night
I’m thinkin’ and missin’ the warmth
de su cuerpa, cerca de mi.
It’s in my dreams that I can sense,
despite the distance between oceans,
that your eternal smile radiates
a healing moonlight of love;
your Moonshadow stays
with me like a candle burning
in a pitch-black room. I hear your
loving “hmm,” and you whisper
to my heart that like the ocean
the love we share comes and goes
perpetually; standing at the shore
we only have to wonder if we
are genuinely under the same moon.
For no matter the distance, timezone,
and age, we’ll find a home in each other’s
hearts as if our bodies are indeed
divine temples of love; Mi suenita,
as we depart from one another, I am
letting go and wishing you love and godspeed.
“friends”
I spent today walking towards exile
in a downtown bookstore
near the lake; I ruminated
on the piece of wisdom
my lovely friend shared
with me: no need to say
“I love you” when you can
speak it universally with
the actions you do. Like leaving
eggs on the skillet, and buying
cups of lattes for each other
we let our loved ones know
how much love we hold
for them within our hearts
in each passing moment.
I couldn’t help but have
flood crystals run down
my smiling cheeks as i
became enveloped and healed
by her warm voice and laugh
as I walked out of bookville.
Rarely do I delve into the stories of my poetry. Like any artist, I love to read and listen to the interpretations of my writing. It’s fascinating to see how our presence inflects change unto our readers.
However, these poems are very much for mi amiga, ta. She is and will always be my favorite friend. And that’s because we cultivated a beautifully rosy love full of chai lattes, jars of Nutella, and photographic glimpses of our longing eyes. And believe me, that platonically romantic love we share makes me feel whole and renewed.
The funny thing is that we never dated; we were always dating and hooking up with other people. Of course, we shared moments of non-sexual physical intimacy. She rubbed my stomach a lot, and I cuddled her when she asked to be held with my arms. We’d say to each other, verbally and non-verbally, that we found a home within each other.
It was this level of intimate trust deriving from a place of spiritually charged love that we could support each other in our roughest. She was by my side as I healed from past drug and alcohol abuse, and I lay next to her as she overcame an abusive relationship with her ex. In these moments, our love for each other grew not weaker but stronger in faith that we had each other.
And that’s why I know deep within the reservoirs of my heart that I will always love her till the end of time. It’s why I can say that the greatest romance I’ve experienced up to this date has been my beautiful friendship with mi vida, ta. We will always love each other unconditionally, and I know my heart sings in praise for our flourishing love as the years begin to pass.