The Most Beautiful Face
The Most Beautiful Face
My feelings for her have been insensately elusive
Each attempt at expression has left me overturned.
The love I carried with me was guardingly exclusive,
So much so I couldn't risk having it spurned....
At a distance it was kept,
No matter how close she'd be.
Inside, my heart always lept,
Without was best for her.... or me?
Her eyes, they contain fantasies that evaded her lips,
Has anyone besides me ever recognized this realm?
I wondered what it would be like to make the slip;
Together, us within.... I want her to command the helm....
This occupies my present thoughts,
All else cannot hold my gaze.
One chance it had to be caught,
This omission drives my current phase.
Every one of those I came across had no chance--
She could be Helen of Troy, approved by Zeus.
The face that would launch this ship I have glanced,
I leave Paris to take the place I have left loose....
Some wonder why I'm alone,
I tell them first things first.
Would they understand and condone,
The passion that extorts my thirst.
Shadows and silouhettes come, one after the next,
Purposefully parade her in front of my disparaged eyes.
The wicked winds summon to her mouth zealous text;
This trilogy of jest plays it continuous until I cry....
I should know not to listen,
They perform purely for spite.
My pain these monsters christen,
Slight revenge-- I turn off the light.
In a book distilling the teenage mask I wore,
I happened upon her visage on a torn page.
Thought I disposed of it a long time before,
In a time when I healed wounds with rage....
Perhaps I placed it back in,
Somewhere in a weakened moment.
Probably was my evil twin,
He's always been better with sentiment.
A newspaper glowed with the worst of my fears:
On the weddings page smiled my woman-utopian.
Razor-sharp and precise were tattered roseate years,
Strewing the floor was the epilogue of the madman....
Some pieces still lie there,
Can't make myself put them away.
Out there I'm left bare,
What will warm my imminent days.
Learning to walk without unattainable crutches,
Falling down and rising again part of the cure.
See up and back all these contusions and scratches?
You cannot-- but they are there-- and I endure....
Ready to shed this cocoon,
Wings take the place of a cane.
I arrive in time for the summer swoon,
Shake off, but embrace the cool rain.
Still the most beautiful face in the world,
I am face-to-face with the demon I repressed.
Free of fervent love, I stand, unfurlled;
Somewhere, deep within, I knew she's impressed....
We converse for a long while,
Until the chill chases our persistence.
I feel I've conquered many miles,
I'm able now to bask in her existence.
Return to Sea of Faces table of contents
Return to A Gathering of Fiends table of contents