There is an image of you interwoven into my very being...
memories that surface afresh into my consciousness
repeatedly, suggestively, without summons or effort,
more real than photos, on the slightest, strangest pretexts…
seeing the stairstep where you turned to smile at me,
glints of gold in your dark hair and your blue green eyes,
or passing a window through which I saw you at work,
bronzed arms glistening, bared in the bright summer sun…
coming across that idyllic wooded scene that once
you commented so favorably, so wistfully upon,
chancing again to hear the strains of a tune
you unabashedly swayed with for a few lanky steps…
everyday things call to mind unexpectedly
the flare of your nostrils, the square of your jaw,
the kink in your hair, the twinkle in your eye,
the set of your shoulders, the lean of your neck…
the shape of your fingers, the tones in your voice,
the scent of you, the look of you, the feel of you
whirl in, startling and awakening my senses,
your nearness perceptible once again.
first published in Twilight Ending
also published in GLORY IN THE ORDINARY Chapbook
©2001 Bonnie Manion