Little One
You have found him, oh, my little one, I can smell it on you and taste it in his eyes, you have found him.
Still, you are two cubs, but soon, soon enough, sooner than you think, you will find each other watching. You will circle, you will stare. You will blink and be caught with your chin in his hands. Then your hips, then your heart.
If I told you, oh, my little one, how you would laugh, how you would refuse, how you would insist. With the pink on your cheeks turning red.
Soon, little one, soon. You will chase tails for fun, you will eat out of his hands, you will learn for the first time that as tight as I hold you, there is one embrace closer still. You will give him his name in the dark and he'll let yours rain down your back or nestle it in your hair or lick it along your cheek.
He will love you and keep you and tell you he will keep you for always and ever then leave you.
For this or for that.
He is always running, always hiding, travelling lightly.
He will leave your heart behind.
And I will wait for your lip to tremble and say the world has ended.
Then, oh, my little one, I will hold you again, hold you until the colors come back and a sun shines once more and the sky flows back out of the sea and you can smile.
You will give me my name softly and I will keep it safe and silent. And you know what I will say.
Oh, my little one.