Do you see that light, far, far away? Do you feel it hitting your eyes and making them shine in this darkness? That’s what you are to me. You’re the light that hits my eyes every morning when I wake up, and you’re the last light I see before I go to sleep. You’re the one who made me see the truth of the world, that nothing matters when you set your heart to something, even if that something doesn’t stay with you as yours forever. Because your light is the imprint that remains on my eyes even after I’ve shut them. You’re my phosphene.

“When will you stop loving me?”, you’d asked me once. “Eons”, I’d replied. You laughed and took it as a joke. I stood firm then, and I’m firmer still. “Eons”. But tell me this, do you remember the day we first met? I don’t mean the day you first saw me. I don’t mean the day you first said hello to me. I don’t mean the day you first sat beside me in the bus while we were returning back to your home. I don’t even mean the first time you said I love you to me. I mean the day you felt that beat in your heart that said it wasn’t yours anymore. The day the very breath that you took in, was filled with the scent of my love. A scent that didn’t escape your lungs until the last breath you took beside me. I’m talking about the day your eyes became wet because you finally saw the storm that had been raging inside of me; the day you became mine forever. I’m talking about the last time you saw me standing there, holding my heart, ripped out of my chest, still beating for you. Do you remember the day we finally met? Do you remember seeing the light go out of my soul when you turned away for the final time, never to return? Does your heart still remember what your mind forces you to forget?

I haven’t spoken to you, my love
In a long, long time
Since you went to that place, with love
Of a peculiar kind
Is it better than mine?

I haven’t walked down that lane, my love
Where we left it all behind
Our pasts for today, for a pain
That I glorify in my mind
Is it better than mine?

I haven’t been to that place, my love
Where the stars don’t blink, or shine
Where you’d sit in my arms, thinking of
The time we’d soon leave behind
Is it better than mine?

Some things may never leave your heart, but as long as they don’t stall your flow, give them a place to stay. They’re the gondoliers that will push you through.