That Lightning Bolt Moment

A Tortured Poet’s Regret — No18

Photo by Ilona Panych on Unsplash

i ask you what it means
that i look at your picture
and feel as if
i'm struck?

i ask you what it means
that i could stare at you
all day
and feel as if i know you?

it’s strange, isn’t it,
that i trace your gaze
so often
but can’t bring myself to say

i want you?

you’d laugh,
probably —
or you’d say
i’m being a fool.

i don’t know,
can’t know,
can’t bring myself to speak
this truth aloud.

i know there are whispers
on the street,
and i know you’re hurting —
but a piece of me wants you regardless.

it’s silly, i know, so silly —
but i’m in love with some fragment
of you, you, you
even though we don’t know each other at all.