I Knew You

Poetry

You were the kind of dazzling I wouldn’t have noticed

(because, let’s face it, you were out of my league),

but something about that shimmer in your eyes

told me more than the booze or the laugh did.

From just a look, I wanted to know you —

what made your shoulders quake with humor,

why you bit your bottom lip to suppress a smile,

how you could stand out in a crowd without trying —

because you were a mystery to solve in pieces.

*

But on another level I thought I could see

the inner workings of what drove that grin,

especially as you lingered in a corner,

far more drawn to solitude than otherwise.

“Wallflower” still didn’t suit you exactly,

probably because of your dark eyes’ gleam,

and besides we didn’t label men that way.

You were new, yet you were the same in a sense

to all my jagged edges that needed shaving.

I wanted to see what you might carve