How Did You Love Me?

how did you love me
like that?
like it was always easy
when we both realized
the challenges i represented.

do you remember that time
in the hotel?
we had an hour to ourselves
and it was the first time
in the 6 months we'd been together
that we saw each other completely naked.

completely vulnerable.
at least,
i was.

how did you do that?
look at me and not see anything
but me?
i watched you discover
beauty all over me
and only that.

you never said
"you're too thin"
as if it were a cautionary tale,
and you never idolized
the image of i maintained.
you saw me
and you understood.

how did you know
that no one ever looked at me
that way?
that i needed all my life
to be seen as a person
and not a disorder,
not a number.

how did you love me
like it was the most natural thing
you could ever do?

did loving me feel like breathing?

it came and went
with rises and falls
but at the end of the day
you were happy to do it?

how did you love me?