What I Would Have Written

What I Would Have Written

‘Morning little one,’
I would have started,
(because that’s how I start)
‘I hope you slept well
dreamt deep’
(I would pause, to breathe,
to replay your pupils dilating)
before listing your achievements
‘the way you break ground
light you throw on the world
hearts you keep beating’
(mine is the ground
mine is the world
mine are the hearts)
I would explain
(or try)
that ‘I don’t know
all the answers’
only the one
‘the one that says
You.’
(and the answers
were hidden in your eyes
the whole time)
‘This day was for you’,
I would have written,
(and then realised)
oh, it still is-
‘yours is the dawn
the suns’ dance across the sky
the shadows growing
longer down my back’
(and crack that joke
crooked smile
eyes gleaming
[‘that’s not the only thing
growing longer’]
loving the look
of brackets in brackets)
I would have written
‘I will sleep smiling
knowing you wake to my day’
(your day)
(our day)
‘however it plays out’.
‘And we have love’.

(‘And so’, I’d think)
‘And so’,
I’d write,
‘take this day
make it memorable’
(with me, I whisper,
but either way,
live it right)
‘Burn it bright.
Love hard, shine strong.’

I would have signed off
the way I always sign off.
For you.
‘Always.
Michael.’