You baptized me in microcosms —

tiny universes where your touch rewrote my soul.

Each caress was a resurrection,

a reincarnation of who I thought I was,

until I became someone new,

again and again, beneath your fingertips.

I lived a thousand summer days

with your smile pressed gently upon my mouth,

a warmth that lingered like golden dusk

on the edge of every breath.

Time bent around us,

stretching joy into eternity.

But then came the frost.

More days than I can count

were spent wallowing in the winter of your absence,

each one a silent ache,

a season that refused to end.

Now, the rest is memory —

a constellation of moments

scattered across the night sky of my heart.

Some burn bright.

Some flicker.

All are yours.

©️ Beatriz Esmer