Querido

It began
eternities ago,
with the brush of
your fingers,
a tantalizing electricity;
and the breath of
your voice,
fuel for a fire
I hadn’t known
was within me.

Not long after
those first
invigorating moment,
was the first time
I said it
quietly
to myself,
a word full
of more hope
and joy
than I had ever known;
querido.

Soon
it was commonplace,
querido
was my favorite
name for you,
though I doubt
you knew that,
because
the calm of my voice
disguised the raw
openness,
and the promise
of eternity,
that the word carried
from my lips.

Eternity only lasted a few months.
Then it was gone,
your hazel eyes
delicious lips
alluring body,
all of it
was still there,
yes,
but the same way
that the sun
is still there
for a prisoner in a cell.
And that day
the word gained
an element of poison;
a stab to my heart
whenever I heard it;
querido.

The next eternity
lasted only a few days,
before the poison seeped away
and
querido
became a beautiful reminder
of what once was,
without the pain
of knowing
it was gone.

Now,
querido
means
self-love,
joy,
and endless
wonder.

But most importantly,
it is the heart of the flame that;
though it no longer burns
for you alone,
you awoke in me,
a flame that
is fueled by many
and reminds me
of the
always-temporary,
yet undeniably eternal,
beauties of the
Earth
carried
within
querido.

-Ash