Te Amo, Alberto...

I Knew You Before I Knew You

There was no thunder,
No lightning bolt,
No sudden music cue
Just something soft in me standing still
The moment I saw you.
Not shock.
Not awe.
But recognition.
Like a favorite scent I couldn’t name,
A melody I’d hummed for years
Without knowing where it came from.

You smiled,
And my spirit leaned forward, whispering,
Finally.
That’s the thing about soulmates
They don’t arrive,
They return.
And that night,
Before your voice touched my name,
Before your hand brushed my arm,
Before I even knew what you drank
I felt it.

You….
Like pages settling into the right chapter.
Like a prayer being answered
Before I’d even spoken.
Like something ancient in me
Leaning toward something eternal in you.
I didn’t fall in love with you
I remembered you.
In the tilt of your head,
In the way your eyes held mine
Like they’d done it before.
My body didn’t flinch.
It softened.
It said, Ah, here.
It said, We’re safe.
It said, You made it.

And you,
Standing there like a question I had already answered,
Smiled like you’d heard the same pulling in your chest.
There was no small talk that night,
Not really.
Only two languages
Relearning each other
In silence,
In glances,
In the space between our words, where truth lives.
I knew you before I knew you.
And somehow,
You knew me, too.