The Most Important Thing

Just two weeks ago, it was sufficient
to say hello, good morning, good-bye.
But now, in every text, every email,
every phone call I tell my friends
and family how much I love them.
I tell them life is better because
they are in it. I say it with the urgency
of a woman who knows she could die,
who knows this communication could be our last.
I slip bouquets into my voice. I weave love songs
into the spaces between words.
I infuse every letter, every comma, with prayers.
Sometimes it makes me cry, not
out of fear, but because the love is so strong.
How humbling to feel it undiluted,
shining, like rocks in the desert after a rain,
to know love as the most important thing,
to remember this as I keep on living.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, ahundredfallingveils.com, March 22,2020