The Tides of Our Soul

We arrive from Texas,

the day still humming from the flight,

and the California air meets us like a kiss,

warm salt, ocean wind, the shimmer of Newport Beach,

spilling just beyond our little cottage door.

The beach shack is small,

quaint in the way only the sea can make something,

whitewashed wood, windows flung open,

the tide within arm’s reach.

The waves are a slow, steady drumbeat,

and I already know we will ignore the world tonight.

We cancel your meeting.

We postpone seeing my best friend.

This evening belongs to us,

to the beginning of something neither of us can quite name.

We stretch out together,

the ocean spilling its rhythm through the windows,

our bodies curved into each other

as if they’ve always known where to rest.

There is no rush.

We speak in low tones,

our words tracing the edges of things we’ve never said aloud.

You tell me the truths,

you have kept folded away from everyone else,

the moments that shaped you,

the desires that live in your bones,

the shadows you thought would drive someone away.

I tell you mine.

Every secret. Every ache. Every place the light hasn’t reached.

And yet, neither of us flinches.

We listen.

We see.

We stay.

It is here, in this tender unraveling,

that love rushes in like the tide,

quiet, certain, inevitable.

We know we can say anything,

show everything,

and still be held.

Your eyes linger on mine

as you vow to heal the child in me

who has waited so long for gentleness.

My heart seals its own vow;

to love you without conditions,

to take every facet of you as my own.

The waves go on breaking.

The night folds itself around us.

We are two souls,

tied in the place where the ocean meets the shore,

and for the first time,

we both feel entirely home in each other’s soul.

Sincerely, Krystle Kelley