He Said Three Words To Me

He said three words to me.
He has done it more than once by now.
Every time he does my heart lurches inside of my chest, wanting to jump out of me and into him.
I can't believe it and yet I know what it means.
I can't believe it and yet those are THE three words in all the universe that might make me believe.
Waiting to be with him again to see if he will say them again and he rarely disappoints.
Its like he looked into my heart and found them there,
pulled them out and used them on me.
How else could he know?
Its like the means justifies the end, but what end?
That's the question and he is different than anyone I have ever met because of the answer.
He said three words to me,
a reflection of a life that has ended,
yet a sign that there is but one thing that matters about it all,
the very thing he told me before he left,
the very thing that's been so hard for me to implement without him.
He knew it would be because he'd walked the road before me.
He knew and all along he gave me signs, like a bouquet of roses whose petals drop as they are carried along,
leaving yet a trail to follow,
like a foreshadowed Hansel and Gretel, trying to make their way back home.
This is the way, walk in it.
He said three words to me as he lay dying,
His last words,
And I didn't want them to be,
I wanted something more, something profound, something so full of love
that they would burst inside my heart and keep me warm for all the long lonely winter nights yet to come.
Yet they were perfect and only looking through the glass darkly can I see.
He said three words to me before he went.
And he....he said three words to me the first time we met,
Echoes of a heart held within a heart, a love tucked safely in its corner, yet a love whose time has yet to blossom,
three perfect words that only I would understand.
"Take my hand."