my imperfections i place in your hands.
with you, i can’t idealize myself –
for what i am, i open up to you,
and strip away far more than simple clothes
connection & acceptance are my hope;
to feel you’ve brought your whole life here with you,
and that you may, on knowing who i am,
move off, in finding me not to your taste
but here, withal that may be put at risk
i ask your imperfections show, as well
She said to me: “Come now, you owe me one,”
And bid me not to worry. She would show
Me how to do these things I’d never done;
Just how to pay the debt I’d come to owe —
And slowly, like a child that learns to crawl,
I inched along the traces of her ground:
She gave off teaching and surrendered all,
Her measured breathing changed to quick’ning sound
To give herself completely to my trust,
And only on her pleasure then to dwell;
To move in slightest ways so to adjust,
To find her shining as last moments fell —
The lesson learned to be used, then, in living:
Receiving finds its fullest mark, in giving
He liked her
And she liked him
But —
She was afraid
Of being used physically
By a man
Who wasn’t really interested in her
Emotionally.
She thought:
That’s just what men do
He was afraid
Of being used emotionally
By a woman
Who wasn’t really interested in him
Physically.
He thought:
That’s just what women do
And they each interpreted the other’s actions
As proving their own theories
Even though they both liked each other
Physically
And
Emotionally
Across the room a wooden table
Yellow tea lights flicker
The night is gathering her dress
To go amid the stars
And we in silence find abundance
Through the skylight glowing
As shadows dance across the bed
And every sound is ours
For we are physical and mental
Full emotions churning
And yet are centered to our core
To lie among the still
And see the lights of years ago
By our few candles burning
To feel how close the far away
Can be when we just will
When she looks
I know,
When I know,
I’m somewhere beyond
Happy
I photograph a rainbow
Through a gray and drizzly haze;
And think: while we communicate
A thousand different ways,
The conversation we might have
Is fragmented, corrupted:
For we now never have one that’s
Not some way interrupted
And out there, past the windshield
In the aether, lives get crossed —
The rainbow goes unseen
Beyond
The intimacy
Lost
the light can change,
we see things differently.
perhaps
what was and wasn’t
meant to be.
but i know this:
you left me still a man,
and though there’s little else
i understand,
i wish you well
wherever you might be,
for light can change
those few things we
can see
it happened when it happened and
i didn’t really understand
the reasons that you needed and
you wanted such a man
as happened to be sitting there,
and thinking overmuch:
but what the eyes cannot believe
is soon proved true
to touch
the days i still recall
as much as any nights;
but men don’t think that way,
so women say
misunderstanding runs
while sympathy still limps,
and yet, it doesn’t have to be
that way
i think that i know well enough
the boundaries and lines
that we must have to shield off
who we are
yet days i still recall,
as much as any nights —
the lunches more than just
the caviar
