I want to wake up next to you.

Not in a bed, per se

But in the tender, sweet awareness

That love is not a battlefield to be conquered;

But a white flag of surrender waiting to be waved.

I want to stand beside you,

Hands woven together like my Grandfather’s

Tweed blazer he reserved only for Sundays.

We steady each other as the scales lift from our eyes,

Revealing that this life is not at all what

We believed it to be.

I want to be held close by you,

Flesh melting away,

Leaving two souls locked in embrace

Exposed to earthly air yet not running, not hiding;

Not trying to be sucked back into their vacant bodies.

Soft beings –

Seeing, loving each moment as they

Become our chosen home.

I want to wake up next to you.

Not in a bed, per se

But in the way that we know we can never turn back

And our only way to now exist

Is to help others wake from their slumber too.