She reappears
As if by miracle
The same face,
head titled slightly to the left,
angled, filling the fram
darker in some ways
than the portrait
I’ve kept in mind
All these long years
Yet the same
All-consuming eyes,
Weight of the world
On her shoulders
Doubtful about it all
Having taken the previous
Picture down,
Fearing the unknown
Her face
A face
I could never forget,
Even if I’d wanted
to
My heart still skips
When she posts a picture
her eyes, hair, mouth,
engraved images in my brain,
refreshed, redrawn
like the cat she sketched
on that black board
in that school that day,
only it’s her face
recovered, and I’m transfixed
like ancient shepherds
each time Athena came,
why on earth did I try to stop them
back then, when she issued them
like a morning bulletin,
maybe even knowing
the reaction on my end.
Maybe I thought
I’d turn into a pillar of salt,
(or go blind as the nuns once said)
or lose my mind like the ancient sailors
who sailed passed
where the sirens sing,
she the most vivid siren of all,
while I bound myself
to the mast of my ship
stunned,
and now,
all these years later
it’s too late to untie myself
and let her song
consume me.
Oh!
To have known her then
That perky, Ambitious
College girl
Gaze fixed on the stars,
A wordsmith
With words spinning
From her sweet
Moist lips,
Wide-eyed
If not bushy-tailed
A Venus flytrap
Between her hips,
A disguised jealous goddess
How unworthy
All those Cupids were,
Stinging themselves
As they fumble over
Words adequate
Enough to please her,
She, already,
Shinning in the night sky,
Raw energy emitted
With each blink
Of her amazing eyes.
How can any mortal man
Resist sacrificing anything,
For one glance of recognition,
Throwing ourselves
At her feet,
Even as she steps over us
we smitten by
our own arrows.
