Even if we were air

If time forgets our names

and the earth swallows every trace of us,

I will still find you

in the quiet between heartbeats.

When my hands are no longer hands,

and your voice is no longer sound,

when we are reduced to something unseen

a whisper, a presence, a memory of warmth

I will still know you.

Because love like this

does not live in flesh.

It is not bound by bone or breath.

It is older than the stars,

patient as the dark,

endless as the sky pretending to sleep.

If we become dust,

I will settle beside you.

If we become wind,

I will move the world just to touch you.

If we become nothing

not even light, not even shadow

then let us be nothing together.

Let us be the silence

that understands itself.

And if there is another life,

another chance, another beginning

I would choose you

without memory,

without reason,

without fear.

Because even in a universe

that forgets everything,

my soul would remember yours.

Even if we were only air,

I would still breathe you in

like forever.

By Natalie olayemi