I Love You

By Savni Apte

I have heard poems in other languages odes dedicated to dead, dusty lovers they have all said the same thing in an indecipherable lilting melody I love you, I love you, I love you. I have watched butterflies dance before me, wings beating in drumbeat harmony,

circling petals fluttering in the breath of the sky,

twin moons in a dense, inevitable orbit, their waltz whispering, I love you, I love you, I love you. I have watched lovers kiss each other, swallow the nectar of their beloved,

peach juice dripping down their throats,

in the heat of sensuality, a stark clarity,

in the motion of their bodies; I love you, I love you, I love you. love is an energy, a presence, ephemeral, found in the sweet scent of petrichor, in the golden treble of the sax, light dappling the pavement, slipping like butter through the leaves of swaying trees. so it is said, that love is all around you, it is hard bought to see it,

it sinks through the skin, unknowingly. I have no tale to tell, only a scribble, of a wish on paper, tearstained. to feel the rhythm of the universe in my marriage finger's vein, spelling; I love you, I love you, I love you.

By Savni Apte