danica

Hey Danica, I don’t know why I’m addressing you like this as if these words are meant to be opened by your hands though they’re more like a whisper I’m giving to the air Maybe starting with your name just made it easier to admit I needed to speak at all There’s nothing pressing I have to say no grand truth waiting in my throat just this quiet, persistent need to write like my thoughts were never made to stay still. There’s something different about you I’ve never once stopped what I was doing paused a song mid-beat just to lie still and let someone fill my mind But with you, it’s natural I think about you with this vivid intensity as if memory isn’t enough and my mind must create you again your face beneath my fingertips the way your eyes meet mine like they’re searching for something real I feel the pull of you even when you’re not around and it feels like more than thought like presence like a shadow that stretches into warmth. I remember early on when we were just friends how you told me you never rushed into things That it took you months to open up to understand someone before you let them in And I admired that not just the patience but the care The way you let people unfold on their own like a book you want to read slowly so you don’t miss a single word. The way you smile it hits me in a way I don’t have words for Except, maybe the way the sun splits through trees breaking itself apart to touch everything warm and golden like it chose that exact spot just to remind the world it’s still here That’s what it feels like Like I’m the forest and somehow the light decided I was worth reaching. I think about how we used to be those early days when everything felt simple and how we are now something more textured like fabric that’s been worn in softened at the edges by time You take up so much space in my thoughts not in an overwhelming way but like a song you hum without realizing because it fits the moment and feels good on the tongue. I picture you jumping with excitement moving to a rhythm only you can hear and it’s this freedom you carry that always catches me off guard You never need permission to be yourself Even with my eyes on you you keep moving as if those eyes are a place to be safe not a cage to be small in And in those moments you show me what it means to be unafraid of being known. There’s beauty in that in how you let yourself be seen and how through you I’ve learned to start seeing myself too.