There's a moment some people invoke when you see them for the first time;
it's subtle and inexplicably fast, so you don't suffocate on it.
If you pay close attention you realize that you hold your breath for them.
Some call it, “Taking your breath away,” but it's more than that.

It's as if they ensnare your soul for a fleeting second,
taking it from its shelf and placing it somewhere else in your being.
You sense you've been taunted with undeclared affection,
something small is changed, but it's forever and has potential for more.

This shaking of the spirit is kindred to a deeper truth.
Maybe you knew each other in another life, or better still,
you're yet to discover everything about each other.
Perhaps it's just a comfortable familiarity.

Nearly everyone who grasps your soul in that breath
will only do it once, or twice. For a week or a month.
A time will come when you have to think back,
wander your memories, ponder to remember this feeling, and wonder

“Was it even real?”

Others are more rare, almost unicorn in nature.
They have a seemingly supernatural ability to steal souls
and place them on whichever shelf they choose.
These people breathe moments out of you over and over.

Each encounter you are blindsided, shield or open arms.
You can anticipate their every action and never win a battle;
you are their puppet, suspended, strung along the moment.
Thankful it will come again, wishing it would never end.

These people are the stones in the river of life
that your foot slips on and for a brief moment
you think you're going to fall right in the water,
but they catch you, and you catch your breath.

If you're a unicorn, you probably don't even know.
Unless, if you could be so lucky, you met one too.
Each rendezvous mutually breathtaking; scrambled,
your elated souls endure exchange.

03/09/2015

Posted on 03/09/2015
Copyright © 2024 Jody Pratt