Pause

Whispered words draw you
Closer to me.
Your lovely eyes
Bespeak your vulnerability.

What hurt you must have felt.
What love you're longing for.

A rush, a chill
Like an autumn breeze
Skipping leaves
Across the ground.

My mind and body respond
To some unspoken message.
The space between us lessens.
Your radiant warmth
Removes all chilled sensations.

I anticipate a delicate embrace,
A gentle searching
For some special sensitivity.
A touch, a kiss and more.
Magnetic forces draw us closer.

A friend, you say.
I hear and think I understand.
Lovingly I pause and wait,
Not wanting to intrude.

Still, a vision
Of two candled flames remain.
Approaching one another
They embrace and intermingle.

So finely do they mesh,
More than doubling their light.
I pause and wait, a friend.

November, 1980