The slight brush of a cheek
The widening, trusting pupil
It’s too late to recoil
The shields I’ve built are futile
A calm within each breath
That passes through their lips
A journey could be started
With each and every kiss
To say that I’m enamored
Would not even start
To tell of the true magnitude
Their energy imparts
Only dreams now could imagine
How our colors swirl and blend
And the galaxy created
By the spangled path we wend
Admit it you think of me
From time to time
When yelling at traffic
Or thinking of rhymes
There is no denying
I leave an impression
Sometimes with wise words
Sometimes rampant obsession
It’s so very subtle
The ways I can stick
Like a touching song lyric
Or a bludgeoning brick
I’m much like a velvet
Often very soothing
But when rubbed the wrong way
You may be left brooding
I am rather imperfect
But also a gas
If you want to match wills
You’d better think fast
You may try to discard me
Or leave me behind
But much to your dismay
I’ll still creep in your mind
Whether our time was sweet
Or a time you regret
The fact still remains
You will never forget
My very first hero is lost to me
My protector, debater, and friend
My guide on how good music could be
With a vast choice of genres to blend
A professor of punctuality
That being on time showed you care
A pinnacle of functionality
When you wore uniforms and short hair
I’ll remember you so well respected
And loved but the many who knew you
So many good times we collected
I’m not ready for them to be through
I was cruelly stung by a bitter wind
When my gloves were lost and my cover thin
I was soaked like soil that had turned to mud
By a whipping rain verging on a flood
I was coated thick by an earthen clay
On a walk meant to improve my day
I was singed and scorched by a licking flame
And a shifting log was the one to blame
Yet a blowing wind once did clear my mind
With its warm caress I was left sublime
And the succulence of a warm spring shower
Washed my sins from me and restored my power
Then a rich dark soil on my digging hands
Reconnected me made me understand
And a glowing fire gently lit my way
Still allowing stars to proclaim their say
Elements can teach what we need to learn
About giving in to get what is earned
About being sure we are victims still
If we pass the blame and forget our will
That the strongest souls can weaken yet
And each moment lived stays a moment met
Every element can a mercy give
To remind us what it means to live
The arched neck and veined throat
Burst with his cry
Before he could let it
The face thrown into rapture
The energy
Of tightened muscles and movement
A love made
In gasps and comingled sweat
A euphoric rhythm
An ancient song unlocked
To pour from within us
Each with our own tone
To blend into one ethereal note
One skin
One heartbeat
Endless victory
Such a compelling derangement of ourselves
Can live in the minds of others
One who seems nameless
Sanctified within the cleansing of recollection
Or sometimes, the darkest ash
One to conquer
One to suffer
The heavy hand
that hammers the brow
Or the face rendered unrecognizable
By the trauma it wears
Much like a shriek being of elation
Or pain
And hard to differentiate
Yet we can be both of these
None of these
Or lost entirely in countless minds
Becoming a mere extra
In the dreams of strangers
Unforgotten yet unrecognizable
One scale to balance all
The good against the bad
When our laughter was contagious
When we knew not what we had
Then we sank into a darkness
Swallowed up within our strife
When our muscles lost the memories
Of the exercise of life
But the veil again was lifted
By a sneaking sort of joy
Once again we smiled at rainbows
And our grumbles became coy
Then time again has ambled
And again the clouds turn dark
But instead you fight decension
You reject somber and stark
As your life swirls on around you
And the years are swift and mounting
You cling tighter to the good times
For the bad are not worth counting
The moments that we dwell upon
For many, far too late
While the bad can pile around us
It’s the good that holds the weight
With the slightest of smiles you’re defenseless
Disarmed by the blushing flirtation
You wonder where from they’ve arrived
To fill your heart with such elation
Steel yourself now if you can
For the edge is approaching quite fast
If you let yourself sail just beyond it
The hold of it’s destined to last
It’s the feeling of tumbling onto the grass
After spinning about in the clover
Of laughing and dancing so freely
You don’t hear the song is now over
When the aching gets to be too much
When you’re folded, frayed and fraught
You sift through the streams of passion
For that spark that never caught
You carefully devise a plan
To see that it ignites
But once the flicker fizzles out
You are plunged back into night
Blind again to all that sits
Well within your reach
You see it as a tragedy
And lose what it could teach
You’re better than a waiting game
You’re worth more than a tumble
You carefully reset your traps
And straight into them stumble
