"I love you, baby" (A Poem)

Love doesn’t care if your body is soft

Or if you dress a certain way,

Have certain friends,

If your hair looks nice or you smell good.

Love doesn’t care if you say the right words

At the right time

In the right order

Love only cares that you show up.

With an open heart

Without expectation, but with passion and vision and consistency.

That you are a shelter from the storm

A container for laughter and tears

A place to be serious and

A place to be goofy

Love only cares that you are present

And open

Willing to be the fool and the hero

Without recognition or return

Love doesn’t care if you say the right words at the right time

As your indefatigable presence is the transmission it seeks to know it’s true

Love is dancing through an endless ego death with a smile

Repeating, “I love you baby”

Hoping to get a smile.