When Love

It starts with a rush beneath my ribs,

a startled kind of joy I can’t quite hide,

like my heartbeat forgot its usual rhythm

the moment you walked into the room.

You look at me once

and everything tilts just enough

to make the world feel beautifully uncertain.

I try to play it cool,

I fail,

every time.

Your smile turns the air bright,

my thoughts looping, slipping,

tripping over themselves

just trying to keep up with the way you make me feel.

A deep, quiet settling,

as if love decided to stop swirling around me

and began to anchor itself instead.

Not heavy,

never heavy,

but sure.

Certain in a way that steadies my hands

even as my pulse still stumbles for you.

I realize in that moment

that this isn’t confusion

or some dizzy rush that will fade with time.

It’s the clarity of knowing

I am exactly where my heart has been trying to land.

You hold me without touching me,

and somehow that is enough

to pull the world back into focus.

So if I sway when you lean close,

if I laugh too quickly or breathe too deep,

just know,

it’s only because loving you

feels like standing in the center of a miracle

I never saw coming

yet somehow always knew I’d find.