For My Dear Ones

I love you because your heart is a homeless shelter. A refugee camp. An orphanage. A center for wayward youth.

I love you because you are the proud smile of a six-year-old child missing teeth.

I love you because you have the arms of a mighty oak.You hold them out as a fortress,stretch them low as a ladder, reach them high as a song of praise.

I love you because holding your gaze from across a roomtickles me in places I am not used to being seen or touched.

I love you because I can't help it, you unravel my armor by showing up without yours.

I love you because I never have to shrink to fit inside the palm of your hand.

I love you because the best in you never stops getting better.

c. 2009 Suzi Q. Smith