Not as long as I can remember,
but as long as anything has truly mattered,
have I been enthralled in your presence.
When I see you
it is like a mainline prick
that pulsates a warm wash
over every pore.
The initial slight pain
that brings a melting selfish pleasure.
Oh Beauty!
I am your blushing slave.
The rusty shackles that tear at my flesh
glow golden and pure,
and even if handed the key,
I would never remove them.
A freckled face
just below blinking blue eyes.
Ethereal silk of a sun dress
clinging to soft skin.
The ebb and flow of hips like a tide
in a whimsical walk to accidentally mesmerize.
Thin porcelain arms
Gripping the leather steering wheel of a ’55 Chevy truck.
A smile
pure and sweet,
playful and inviting.
There is no cure for this entrenched love of you.
You who shows up on a sunny day
and a blinding storm.
You who are the elegant angel
passing me by on the street corner
never to appear again,
but imprinted eternally in the Rolodex of my grey matter
You who are the sketch of a desperate mind
hoping to capture your essence
to share you with all who are obsessed with your existence.
You are truly alone in the universe.
There is no equal or contender.
War seems acceptable when you are at stake.
Love seems sane when you are drunk in too much.
There is no force,
no gravity,
that matches you in strength and persuasion.
You birth adoration and art with a glance,
yet the same look bore Greeks to burn kingdoms
and sired youth suicides in churches.
Oh Beauty!
Everywhere I see you in blessed flesh.
You may be my stranger,
but every time I recognize you instantly.
No clone, better than a mirror, the change is captivating.
I may find your love in eyes so tender and true,
then look over my shoulder
and find you again in alluring eyes that haunt.
It is through you that I feel most alive
and truly that is my necessity.
I fear death, as any man with a wrinkled brain should,
but in glimpsing you,
or touching you,
that iced hand seems stayed,
if only momentarily.
And rather than sending a chill through my spine
it is frozen in place.
So in chasing you,
which is all I ever do,
I show my devouring love of life.
Oh Beauty!
Enrapturing, enamoring Beauty.
You are wild and nurturing,
a passion that is sweetest when untamed.
And, since you have made yourself known,
I walk on the crowns of kings.