As Long as the Stars Burn

In my dreams I was watching the way your smiles burned up all my fear and sadness

And turned my heart into such a bright little furnace, such a pulsing little heat.

All the sparks made me smile and I think I was lighting your heart on fire too.

You woke up something in my spirit that makes me want to dance in moonlight

And stare up at the stars. Did you know that you’re made of magic and sunlight?

Do you know you’ve got all the brilliance of the heavens frolicking about in your eyes?

I’ve known since I first looked at you, touched your soft, smooth skin,

That the earth was in love with you. I’ve seen the way the sky steals looks at you

And the water gently kisses your feet. This is how I fell in love with you,

Watching the universe write such beautiful poetry about you in my heart

With your hands and lips, with your bright eyes and wild hair.

It wrote your name in me so deep and I read it everywhere I go. I belong to you,

Forever. For as long as the stars burn and the wind blows, I am yours.

I love you like the ocean loves the moon; I love you like the rain loves to fall.

I feel the earth smiling whenever I try to explain you, try to write you with words.

She couldn’t do it with all the sunsets or the bright blossoming flowers.

Not even with paints of lights across the dark canvas of night could she illustrate

The way the stars loved you so well that they lit up the whole of night.

Your smiles so much like sunbeams, your laughter like showers of rain,

Your magic is the kind that grows seeds, opens flowers and melts winter’s darkest dreams.

You're spring in such lovely flesh and I love you like summer and winter both must.

You melted all my cold and frozen places, unlocked all the little, hidden seeds

And blew until the sparks flew higher than any bonfire, hotter than waves of summer heat.

I’ve never been so happy or so full of this lovely light. Come, and lay your cool hands

Upon my burning flesh, your warm spirit here inside me for all the moments of all the days.

I want to forget all of the nights we ever spent apart, all the time we could not touch.

Come, and throw them into the fire, every one, and run away in me for all the forevers.

I never want to close my eyes without you again. I want to wake with you and never sleep;

I want to sleep with you and wake no more to this dark and distant dream of separation.

No more dreams and distance, come, and be my real and waking moments, live in me.

Eric M. Petit