Good morning letters to Cielito

Before breakfast is even ready

good morning,
mi Cielito,
and every one after.

Nothing woke me with news. No date circled itself and no anniversary leaned in to remind me. The light just came back the way it always does, and I chose you again the way I always do. Consider this me saying it out loud, on an ordinary morning, on the record, NDOKUDA WANZWA.

No occasion · just the sunrise

no end date / on loan from
the morning, indefinitely

To

You

Occasion

Just the sunrise

From

Tadiwa

Filed under

Every morning

Small things, noticed early

you, by morning
light.

Not events. Just the things I catch while the coffee is still too hot to drink.

Morning note

one

undated / ongoing

On the way you laugh.

There's a half-second pause before it lands, a small unguarded breath where your whole face decides. I have caught myself saying silly things just to set it off. I would say a thousand more.

noticed at first light

Morning note

two

undated / ongoing

On your quiet kindness.

You give it as if it costs you nothing, when i know exactly what it costs. You hold space for people without ever making them feel held. It's the rarest thing i've seen up close, soft on the outside and steady all the way through.

studied at length

Morning note

three

undated / ongoing

On your attention.

When you listen, you actually listen. You keep the small unimportant details i forgot i ever told you, and you bring them back later like they were always yours. It's a kind of love i didn't know you could give just by paying attention.

kept close

Morning note

four

undated / ongoing

On your presence.

Rooms are different when you're in them, and i don't know how else to put it. The temperature of an afternoon shifts. It isn't that you fill a space, it's that the space arranges itself around you. I would rearrange mine, gladly, as many mornings as it takes.

the whole reason i wake up early

Every day

Your good-mornings.

They arrive steady and generous, with no occasion attached, and they re-orient my whole day. Asi pamwe anonoka hawo kkkk.

daily / unprompted

Every day

A shared table.

You make a small table feel like an event. The food is incidental. It's the conversation between bites, the kundidyisa parts, the way you steal a chip without asking.

recurring / no reservation needed

Every day

The goodnights.

The one that takes forty minutes to actually end kana ndakunzi usaende. The world gets smaller when i'm with you, and somehow more interesting at the same time.

five more minutes / always

Every day

A private dialect.

A look. A single word. Whole conversations folded into a syllable. No one else gets it, and that is exactly what makes it ours.

untranslatable / by design

Every day

Your hands.

When you're explaining something you care about, they speak before you do. I could watch the rehearsal forever and never need the play.

best supporting performance

Every day

Everything else.

Every small unrecorded thing too quiet to fit on a wall and too important to forget. The list keeps growing on its own, no help from the calendar.

still being noticed

While you were still asleep

a letter,
written at
first light.

From the desk of T. Re: you, this morning

Mi Cielito,

It's early. The light is only just deciding to show up, you're still asleep, and i'm writing this because it felt too true to keep to myself until you woke.

I love you in the plain hours. On the mornings you rise easy and the ones you'd rather not rise at all. On the good weeks and the flat ones. I love the exact sound of your laugh, the way you look at things you find beautiful, the kindness you hand out without ever keeping the receipt.

You don't have to earn any of it. Not with a good mood, not with a good day, not even with a good thought about yourself. It's already here. It was here yesterday, and it will be here when the light comes back tomorrow.

If I ever made you feel like ndavakukanganwa I am sorry. Sometimes I get carried away wanting to do the big things but forgetting how much you value the 'little' things as well.

This whole letter is a reminder that I'll keep choosing you at every sunrise, the bright ones and the ordinary ones. The rest is only signature.

Ndinokuda. Every reason, no reason, again in the morning.

Signed

— Tadiwanashe Basil

Mangwanani, Locadia.

good morning, mi Cielito, and every one after.

you, by morninglight.

On the way you laugh.

On your quiet kindness.

On your attention.

On your presence.

Your good-mornings.

A shared table.

The goodnights.

A private dialect.

Your hands.

Everything else.

a letter, written at first light.

good morning,
mi Cielito,
and every one after.

you, by morning
light.

a letter,
written at
first light.