This is so beautiful Andrea!

Beautiful dedication to a yearning love

Hello Andrea,

I adore this poem...

The simile of a coffee cup - a concentrated vessel 'withholding' a lifetime of hopes and dreams - I like the phrasing, like the cup is locking it away, all the pent up intensity. The rhyme of 'tears and years' leading poetically into alliterated 'moistened memories' and an unfinished 'soul -'mate really stamps the image of loneliness and longing for love, friendship and kinship. Excellent.
The memories 'tasted' - I take this as 'near misses', flavours of love; the feeling, a tease, but not quite right, to the point of losing faith - almost...
Then fate takes a turn, a buried belief, an unspoken dream of true love happens in the metaphor of 'open arms'. I like the trailing off, allowing the reader to fill in the gap of their own knowledge/ hopes of true love, finding a 'soulmate'
The last line is fantastically sweet. Like scolding a child for absentmindedly walking into a dangerous situation, only to pulled back harshly by a parent (I imagine a mother) and told off, more for relief than anything else. I and many others can relate to this feeling - a sense of overwhelming relief and happiness.
An excellent poem, well-structured and written; one that starts the reader off with a melancholy image and then leaves them feeling satisfied with a happy, humorous ending.

Nominated for sure,

Take care,

Michael

I love how you use the coffee cup as a simile of holding your tears.

Well written