Timing

Men typically say it after one month

Women tend to go for about  five

Darling, I’ve said it since day 3

Whispered after you’d hung up the phone

Spoken to my favorite picture of you

Even though you never heard 

You probably suspected

And because of respect

I haven’t told you

I don’t want to scare you off, so

I’ll wait out those five months patiently

…or maybe just two, that’s all I can stand before

I tell you  that, so much that I bite my tongue every time we talk

to keep myself from revealing  it, 

I am deeply, truly, maddeningly

in love with you