First Impressions

In some other lifetime,
I smelled like you the next morning.
My heart beat the extra for the walking away.

Once another fall,
the sunlight felt like this,
as I listened to me move within your house.

In a parallel universe,
you leaned in,
and I followed thinking we were going somewhere.

Even better than…

When I meet him, there he’ll be
the big him with the little “h”
for the capital “R” kind of relationship
—a boyfriend by any other designation.
We will have survived our second and third impressions,
slogged through the realities of us,
and successfully emerged in a world
where I can wear that shirt again
and he can introduce me without U.N. translators.

Saturday Night

Sitting near the fire,
surrounded by various
shades of love,
I watch and listen
and wait to be fed.
Two votes for,
two votes against,
a handful un-cast.
The only eyes to find mine
are a lifetime too late,
and there only for
the joy of remembering,
not the pain of possibility.
My eyes flick away.
I’m here for the pain.