i.
Your smile.
The way it changes your whole face. The way I can hear it through the phone, even when you are trying not to let it through. Some days that sound is the only thing that gets me from morning to night.
A letter for
Mehri
On your day
·
From across the miles
“
Some people are moonlight — you can’t always reach them, but they are always there, pulling the tide of every ordinary day. You are my moonlight, Mehri. From any distance.
Begin
Three things I keep coming back to
Since I can’t be there today
ii.
Your laugh.
The real one — the one that escapes when you forget to be careful. I would cross every mile between us just to hear it once. I would cross them all over again to hear it again.
iii.
Your cute selflessness.
The way you put everyone first, quietly, without ever making a show of it. You don’t seem to notice you are doing it, which is exactly what makes it so you, and exactly what makes it so easy to love.
A short, incomplete list
What I love, in no particular order
The sound of your voice at the end of a long day.
How you remember the small things I forget I said.
That you cry at the right parts of films, and never apologise for it.
The way you say my name when you are tired.
How a screen never feels like enough — and you make it feel like everything.
One small thing, before I am done
Press the seal
Break the seal
And so
Happy birthday,
Mehri.
I love you. I say it every day, and I know it is never enough — but you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I am so lucky that I get to love you.
Yours, across any distance