I Got This Yesterday...

And I thought I would share:

I sing the body and the blood of you
Of your lips
and of your eyes.
A thousand hearts I would give to you
So be mine
my Valentine.

I am the Harlequin. In my mask and my diamond covered garments, and the world is my masquerade.

There are many Harlequins, but I am yours this day.

Do you know the joy of the Harlequinade? The dance is simple, and as it ends we each change our costumes and we each change our roles.

A role is but an act, and a costume is but a mask. As for my own - it is yours also - for I am the love you had, the love you have and the love that you live only to dream for. I am everything, I am nothing, I am everyone’s... and I am yours and yours alone. No longer am I silenced, no longer restrained, for today is Valentine’s Day, and I am no longer a slave of mute longing. Today, and today only, I can sing and I can dance, and I do these things for you.

And behind this mask lies the face of every person who will ever love you.

And today, I give you my heart. Willingly and without restraint. And then after this dance, I must leave – for I have mischief to make and people to dream. That is my function, that is my purpose. That is the Harlequinade. I give you my heart, but its beat you must find alone. I tell you who I am, but you cannot see my face. This moment is forever ours, but it shall never be ours again in this way.

But know this.

A moment is eternal. And in this moment, our moment, you are loved. There are many ways to love, and many ways to be loved. I change shape and I change my dance, and I am found in many ways. Let us not be limited in either.

Let us dance freely, in whatever form our love takes. Let us pick our own special fruit from the tree of love, for each is as splendid as the next.

I sing from the shadows, and it is a sweet song. You will hear me if you listen, and you will see me if you look. I am waiting for you, even if I have already found you. Even if you are already mine or even if we are not to meet for years. Our next dance waits only for my unmasking, whenever it may be. But know, no matter the wait, be it hours days or years, that I am waiting for you to see me... and it more than your eyes you must look with.

And if you have already unmasked me, if you already know my face. Take but only the time to do it again and see if I am as you remember, for the mischief of the Harlequin makes fools of us all. And our dance changes with our role and costume. All that stays the same is our love.

And now, my dance continues, and it must continue alone. But I swear someday you will unmask me and see me as I am beneath a human face - and you will recognise me. Whether it is one you know or one that is new, one you expected or one you did not.

So Happy Valentine ’s Day, my love. You are perfect.

Do not reply to me, do not seek me in this visage, recall me only in your thoughts. For our dance must end, and I too must change my costume and my role... and as in a dream, this moment that is ours forever, alas, must end and be as tears in rain.

But never forget, never doubt and never question - you are loved.