Quirks personified, you are
Drawn by some odd artist's watercolor paintbrush,
Odd and even and altogether fascinating;
Constructed of fine curves and finer lines
With small gentle hands and delicate wrists
And little nails like chips of quartz
You look at me with those strange dark eyes
Framed with strong eyebrows that fade to feathers
And I am afraid to look into them
Because I am wise enough to know
That the eyes really are the windows of the soul
And I don't want you to know what's in mine.
Or maybe it would be like two planets of equal size
Caught in the gravity of each other;
Who pulls whom as they spin apart?
Or do they just not pull at all?
I'm afraid to find out.
I, who can undress a person to their very bones with my eyes,
Cannot help but be humbled
By one as meek and mild as warm milk
And as sweet as honey.
Everything about you sings to my blood as you do
But should I sing harmony to you
I doubt you'd hear me
And we both know that harmony
Does not exist without a melody to compliment
But still I try to make you speak
Just so I can hear your voice
Or that laugh that I am so seldom showered with
Like a fine misty rain.
When your eyes don't entrance me
I am free to look where I please
Yet my gaze always wanders
Back to you;
You impress me.
What is it, the quirky half-smile
That always seems to be perched on your lips?
Or the way your clothing silhouettes
A waist so slender
That I could wrap my hands around you?
I see the curve of your smooth jaw from behind
As you push a strand of hair behind your ear,
Never wasting a motion,
Never giving an extraneous flicker
That does not belong as you intend.
You move through space
As one swims through water;
Time flows around you
With no particular effect;
For all your grace and cautious purpose
You possess a time zone all your own.
Please, come out
Or let me in
I want to know you for what you are
But what are you? You are,
I think,
The finest collection of stardust around
But even if one such as you
Could be said to belong to anything of this world
Were you mine, I still
Wouldn't know what to do with you
But I think I might
Like to find out.

01/01/1998