Belated Valentine Declaration - a poem

Can't say that I truly knew what love could feel like until I fell in love with you.

I'm not diminishing love I might have felt for others, that romantic Valentine heart shaped cut-out of love, that makes you erupt in butterflies in tummy places,

No, I won't say I was never in love before. For we can love wrong people, for us, 

and admit that that was all there was to it, wrong sorts of love for us, them of the past,

ones who we mismanaged, or one we mis-wanted to be right for the heart,

But, we are not beholden to stay with thoughts of romance with past selves that we grew up out of, because it is always a case of growing up, and learning and bettering.

Still,

Can't say that I truly knew what love could feel like until I fell in love with you.

Never realized that each new understanding we developed for each other would make your beauty grow, exponentially, as though it were instant, as though I blinked, and your eyes were blossoming more strikingly of green-blue hues,

Maybe it was the Georgia sunshine, when we spent time on a field watching sporting event that your sibling participated in, and maybe it was seeing you in your, "natural habitat" around your familial units.

But, I am amazed at capacities of human heart to deep dive directly into deepest reaches of love, how scuba gear is not required to float, swim and seek the bottom,

That is the thing though,

That makes this love so different, is that it truly feels bottomless. For who else shows grace to me when I screw up, and who allows me to show that I care to grow

and change, and improve, and understand,

And I too, returning this too you, and I look over at you. And you're so beautiful, but of course they will say, of course you think she's beautiful, but thing is, her features have remained same-same.

It is I who have changed with each passing month so that eyes seem livened, cheeks seem smoother, smile broader, and laugh contagious.

Can't say that I truly knew what love could feel like until I fell in love with you.

What gets me,

What slays me,

What drives me into most romantic enthralls,

is our communication, our sharing of emotions, reciprocated feelings, on levels that touch floor to ceiling, speaking our personal truths and hurts, and never casting judgement,

and wanting only one thing,

understanding that we just want to be loved, and taken care of.

But,

shared dreams of tomorrow, press on through the door,

sharing every weekend, almost, four months on,

working hard to be the people we want to be for ourselves, and taking care to include each other,

and loving each other for who we are, and not making outlandish demands,

just to be loved.

There is safety and security here, a willingness to accept that each of us can be wrong, no fear of voicing concerns, no worries of retribution, no over bearing weights piled upon of shoulders, just a couple people admitting that they deserve this kind of love,

and no, I've never had that love before.