not in exotic locales do I love you
but at home, I love you

I turn the leaf of a page and you’re playing video games, mute on
the couch sighs beside the humming air purifier, the daily air quality warnings
we check the weather app and it says moderate
so we sit on the balcony that will always overlook the park, a view untarnished

music plays nearby, acoustic guitar and falsetto tones
and the quiet sounds of the street, cars and trucks stopping and going, air brakes, and bird chatter

I write poems in my Notes app about here and now and not there and the past
about where we are and not where we’ve been
Maybe I think about where we’ll go but not seriously and only languidly only barely

The long weekend beckons and
I say to you, It’s you; you’re the one
I say it in earnest and not as a joke, something new and pure
The long weekend and this long life
made short and fleeting
unrolling like a map where I close my eyes and place my fingertip down
Here, right here
I open my eyes to see where my finger has landed and
it’s where I’m supposed to be

I love you
the quiet, everyday of you
the quiet everyday of you
I love you