if i could tell you what's next

this is what i say: hello. how are you? how was your day/class/meeting/work/everything/life?

this is what i mean: hello. i love you. i love you. i love you.

this is what i do: every so often i search the well-worn corners of my mind and revisit
those words--

--by me or by others; on paper, on computer screens, on walls, engraved in stone; sloppy,
neat, scribbly, clear, muddled, legible, impossible, possible, but always real--

--that make me think of you and smile and say yes, yes, yes, this is it.