A Stranger’s Echo.

He is calm.

A stillness in a storm I won’t address.

A storm that grows inside of me,

But i refuse to confess.

*

His eyes are brown, perhaps,

Like soil after rain, steady and familiar.

Or maybe amber in the fading light,

A warmth that softens even the hardest night.

Or blue, like the ocean when you’re tired,

And you just want something to hold you…..

*

I cannot tell,

He sits so far away.

*

I think he’s looking.

But maybe it’s just my gaze,

Bouncing off the glass of want,

Returned not with AFFECTION,

But REFLECTION.

*

And I think I might like him.

Oh God, no….

Not the butterflies AGAIN,

Not the tender ache that flutters

Before the fall.

I hate the churn.

The familiar, sweet taste of “what if”

Followed by the slow digestion of “not for you.”

*

He won’t return it.

He’ll vanish

Like the others.

Eyes to the floor,

No words, no shots taken.

Just GONE.

*

And I’m left

Clinging to the silence,

Holding onto a glance

That felt like MORE.

But maybe it was only mine,

My heart’s hallucination.

*

Still, I stare.

He looks kind.

Too kind.

He is everything I could ever want.

My imperfect delight.

*

Could he… love me?

Could he bear the weight

Of this hesitant, haunted heart?

I will never know.

I don’t want to know.

I don’t think i can bear the weight of knowing

He could've said “no.”

*

“Thank you, stranger,”

For sitting still long enough

To stir my SOUL.

You gave me a page,

Another line in my love chronicles.

*

Because it’s hard.

So damn hard.

To admit I could ever

Love a MAN…

*

But oh Lord, I DO.