dad's smile at the airport

You step out after five, maybe six years away, the long trip still in your legs, and there he is, that biggest smile, staring at your face like he can't quite believe you're real. The city hums around the car, ordinary and unhurried, while everything that matters passes between you without a word, love shown the way he has always shown it, in being here. It lives now as soft musk, warm skin and amber.