No Words Necessary

it is not the words but the way the words

escape your throat; the awkward pause, the silence

how the space between us shrinks and we are frozen in each other’s eyes;

breath caught as time drips slowly by

it is not your eyes but the look in your eyes, 

suddenly wide and focused too closely on the details of my face

as when meeting a wild animal in the woods,

there is a primal understanding, an instant recognition;

the eyes flash, the pupils quiver

it is not your neck but the vein in your neck

the visible display of blood circulating through the animal body

heart pumping madly to make sense of the words that have just escaped your lips

the body primed to chase or leap or run and yet you breathe one sharp breath

and do not move

it is not your mouth but the way your mouth

stops moving except to gape, except to tremble,

except to express naked vulnerability with set of your jaw

in the inch between your parted lips sits everything you do not say