Love Me Now!

Tick... tick... tick... Not a metronome, not a melody—just time, peeling away like petals on a dying rose. I wonder... will you only reach for me when my hands are too cold to hold you back? Will your words, heavy with unsaid things, finally find wings—when my ears are too far to hear them? I have seen love written in eulogies, Sculpted in stone, Echoing in the sobs of the ones who swore they had time. But love delayed is love denied. What is a flower to a grave? What is a tear to a silence that will never answer? What is "I love you" to an ear that will never hear it? I am standing here, breathing—do you see me? I am calling, whispering, screaming—do you hear me? I do not want my name to taste sweet in your mouth only when regret has made it bitter. If you love me, love me in the now. Love me in the ordinary, in the in-between, in the silence before the song. Love me when my voice is still loud enough to call your name. Love me while my heart still beats to the sound of your footsteps. Do not wait to miss me before you choose me. Do not wait to lose me before you see me. Love is not a memory to be carved into stone; it is a fire to be kindled in the present. Love me now. Not when it’s too late.