27 degrees one fresh spring day, the next a snow storm coats the green in white.

A lamp is broken and a milky mist covers the floor.

My mind is somewhere else as I ponder the many forms love can take:

When youth held its innocence I knew family love;

Uncharted and warm, setting me off on the road of knowledge,

A tiny candle by my side.

Life traveled by.

School and lessons pushed poetic things like love from my mind.

In an age of change and reason I came to know friendship love.

Acceptance was the greatest power I’d thought there ever could be.

They gave me more than I asked for, turned that flicker to a flame.

They believed in me.

Then came the first time I loved as couples do.

Denial gripped my being until I let me see the truth.

Why did the flame have to catch to my heart?

The love I sought was one of my friends.

Doomed from the first kiss my love could never be returned.

The heart was burned to ashes,

Never would I love again.

Between then I had a mate

But there was not enough to keep us as one.

She did not love me and deep down

I knew I didn’t truly love her.

The ashes began to reassemble as time drew on

And the flame coaxed me back to life.

Then loved confessed itself one evening and I realised, yes,

I could love again.

Like before it was a friend,

Dear to my heart who’d been with me through many of the battles.

We really weren’t all that different.

Unlike before it was she who confessed her love for me.

The unseen boundaries now removed I found an affection beyond any other.

Yes, I loved her too.

This time it is a companiate love,

Not so a flurry and confusing.

We opened our souls to the other and loved without fear.

It was not the love of fairytales and romances as I had felt before,

But one so much more endearing and I knew this one would

Last.

Love is unexplainable,

A feeling consuming one’s being.

A soul-searching love that holds no fear,

One of a friend but ultimately more.

The flame is now an entity by my side,

Holding my hand firmly and keeping me warm at night.

For you who touched my heart and taught me trust.

I love you Findabhair -