I will not say I love you, for 3 words would never encompass the depth to describe the ocean of emotions within me, rather I should say,

I once despised the cold until I was graced with a flicker of your warmth. Because now I brave the bitterest winds willingly, just to earn the honor of being wrapped in the sanctuary of your arms, just to bask in the radiant glow of your embrace, just to boast that I was cocooned in a velvet quilt of comfort and love, even if, just for a fleeting moment.

My heart reaches for you like the moon pulls the tides,
You mean as much to me as the stars mean to the night,
My soul dances with yours like the wind sways the trees,
I’m drawn to you like the rivers are to the seas.

For,
Your eyes are an oasis to my desolate heart,
Your smile blossoms a million flowers on my parched land.
Your laughter is the fire that warms the coldest corners of my soul,
Your voice drizzles warmth like honey, sweetening my heart and gently filling every hole.
Your gentle touch is like a fleeting dream, leaving echoes of bliss in its wake,
And your shimmering face reflects my deepest peace, calm and serene like a tranquil lake.

And the moment that I met you, it was like as if my heart had merged with its other half, as if the universe, in all its vastness had conspired to weave our souls together, binding us in a tapestry of love, woven by the stars, that transcends both time and space.

But would a 3 word phrase consisting of mere syllables be enough to describe the enormity of love in my heart?
Surely not… So I won’t say ‘I love you’
Instead I’ll let my soul speak in all that I do.

Each breath I draw is infused with the sweetness of your fragrance,
Each sight I behold, though varied and many,
somehow morphs to reflect your elegance

And I don’t know why, but every colour I see, every shape I discern, every size I decipher and every view I witness, no matter how different or distinct, it somehow transforms into a reflection of your visage.
Maybe because your face is engraved on the canvas of my eyes.
Perhaps your image is etched into the very fabric of my vision and with every blink, you’re painted back into view, like an unshakable dream that lives behind my eyes,vividly present; as if the world itself is shaped by the outline of your presence.

And I don’t know how but all the voices I hear, irrespective of how dissonant or unique, eventually melds into the familiar melody of yours,
Maybe because your vocals are a perpetual echo in my ears.
It is the symphony to which my heart beats, a melody that resonates through every chamber of my soul, a sound that never fades, no matter the silence around me.

But, ladies and gentlemen, what if I tell you, that although I pour my heart like a ocean, her love for me drips like a leaky faucet.

Because although my heart believed to have found its destined half, her heart didn’t even seem to have a ripple.

How wondrous it is!!
How wondrous it is to offer a universe of affection, merely to get a stardust in return.
How wondrous it is to embrace you with the warmth of the sun, while you respond with the chill of twilight.
How wondrous it is to offer all the colors of the dawn, only to be met by the quiet gray of your fading dusk.

Because for me,
She was my crimson dawn,
The Cerulean seas,
The Velvet skies,
And the yellow autumn trees.

Yet for her,
I was a faded picture on the wall,
A face in the crowd, not noticed at all,
A murmur in the roar of the storm,
A speck of dust in the sunlight , forgotten and forlorn.

And yet this foolish soul, had the audacity to fall—
To weave a universe out of her smile,
To sculpt galaxies from the touch of her hand,
To believe that a glance from her eyes held the weight of the world.
But I was lost in a tale that was not my own,
Singing songs for her she would never hear,
Tracing constellations in her shadow while she danced in the glow of another sun.

How wondrous it is, indeed,
To love with the heart of a poet,
Only to be an unread line in the corner of her verse.
To etch her into the very marrow of my being,
Only to remain a whisper she would never hear.
To give her all that I am for her light,
Only to fade away, unnoticed, in the gathering dusk.

And still, this foolish soul would fall again,
For what is love if not a beautiful madness,
A leap into the abyss.
With a vain hope to be venerated with a glimmer of her recognition, to be augusted with a flicker of her grace,
With a belief that one day her sight might rest on my face,

Even if, only in a fleeting dream.

And therefore, still I will confess,
Not with three fleeting words, for that would fall short of the boundless emotions that stir within me, but rather I would bleed my heart out…

My lungs thirsts for your scent more than the air they draw,
My eyes crave for your sight more than any beauty’s awe.
My ears long for your voice more than the softest melody’s call,
For my heart finds it refugee in you, where it yearns to dwell above all,
To merge with your soul.

And darling if you should ever break my heart, you shall find your name etched in gold,
In every fragment, of the heart you’ve broke.
Every piece will glisten with the memory of you,
For even in ruin, I will hold onto your name like a prayer,
Even as you walk away, untouched by the love you never claimed,
Like a cold ember that never knew the warmth I ached to give,
I will still pour my soul out for you.

And thus, I don’t merely love you, rather

Every piece of my being adores every facet of yours,
For you are the axis on which my very existence spins.

You’re the one whose presence can make a heaven bloom upon my skin,
And you’re the only one whose absence can make me bleed agony, carving a wound deep within.

But unfortunately, you cannot make a heart bloom where it chooses not to grow.
For it’s impossible to build a bridge of affection over a chasm of indifference.

And therefore, although my heart blazed with the flame of her love, the fire in her heart barely flickered…Oh sorry, it never ignited!
And so, I was left without her.

And without her I’m like a lonely man marooned in the middle of a sea,
Where I don’t cry for help and just let the sea monsters devour me.

Without her I’m like a lonesome wanderer stranded in a desolate desert,
Where I yearn to be swallowed by the ocean of sand and I know, this demise won’t make her hurt.

Without her I’m like a solitary figure floating in the abyss of the black space,
Where I aspire to be merged with the stars, because you, my brightest star, are not even bothered about my trace.

And so here we stand, where once we debated if 3 words would suffice,
But now we’re doubtful if even volumes of novels could melt her heart’s ice.

Or perhaps was it that those 3 magical words could have worked?
Or should I have crafted my phrases longer, woven my verses more intricately?

I suppose we will never know.

For the secret has died, and now as you walk away, its remnants perish too…

WITH MY FINAL BREATH.