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