MY HEARTBEATS TESTIFY | A POEM BY EVEH BRIGHT PETER

I once thought myself

An expert swimmer,

& then I met you.

& then you crept under my skin.

& then the wave of your love

Crashed over me,

That sun-kissed day.

& NOW, I can barely stay afloat.

Not even sure I want to.

This tendency to lose

My swimming skills around you

Should be scary, but it isn’t.

Neither is the thought of you

Turning chef in a breakfast café.

MOST days, I awake at dawn

With thoughts of you

Dancing in my head

& your love singing in my soul.

Lover, you are sky, I am sun—

There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,

Even on days you house storms.

NIMI, a reminder: you are God’s

Prized possession, & mine too—

The one for whom my heart beats.

My heartbeats attest to this.

& so I’m sitting here,

Staring into space—

Thinking of a thousand ways

To say I love you every day.