something that I know about you — a tiny poem

for JJ

when they were looking at you, it was this they saw

you could camouflage yourself

in a thousand variations

but what they wanted was the heart

or the scent because they didn’t have that

~

this was just something you always had

walking a thousand streets

what happened is that their eyes

were trying to fix on yours

what they wanted was the thing behind

and this is how you learned never to

meet their gazes

you learned how to tilt your head just so, how to

walk into a room letting your eyes breeze over it

~

all around you there was whispering

all around you there were stares

~

presence is something that you had at two

at ten, at twenty and onwards until now

luminous

more lustered now than ever

and you can’t say anything about it can you?

how they latched

how they hatched something in themselves

just being near you, can you?

it was always that bright

~

so much life in your veins, so much living, lived

so much alive that they had to suck that like so many vipers

into the great horrible emptiness

that was their lives, that vacuum, void

you were the lamp

with the exquisite grin

the wide swirl of the dance

the curled cape

precision of a torreador

hand holding the pen

~

there was so much sparkle

that they had to own it

so they roped you, one by one

some giant toro in the field

they could see you for miles, couldn’t they?

their spears, the darts, the banderillas

each released another bloom

blood red from the yellow happiness

the root of you that strong

the thorns of protection you had to wear

a thousand petals in your hand

~

“something that I know about you” — copyright 2011 — all rights reserved