Your blue shoes
 with squat, square knob heels
Your calves
The backs of your thighs
Your denim jacket
The sheer waves of your brunette hair
Your over-the-shoulder glance
Your upturned nose
Your chortle
Your shepherding your dog past

Whenever you gaze at me
 I don’t show it,
 but my clear lake ripples
I yearn for you
 but hold back
 and secretly I scheme
If I could make you see
 how lovely you are
 then you might become foolish
 enough to kiss me
I could turn you into a Narcisa,
 the way we fondly gaze
 at one another,
 and then hold you fast
I honestly reveal your beauty,
 but on closer inspection
 you realize my cheap amalgam
I confess there are others
 whose prettiness I’ve winked at
You feel betrayed by your vanity
I'm stunned by your ravishing exit
The bounty of your presence was always true
I remain, a picture of hollowness,
 my silver tongue calling after you
 only to be tantalized by echoes
 of remembrance 

My love might seem a dot,
 a jot to stop and end on
Up close you’ll note a dote,
 a boat to float a dream on

You tantalized me with
 the tickles of your tendrils
I delighted in watching you
 traverse my entire surface
It was a bit rude
 and there was some pain
 when you took the first bite,
 my complexion blemished
Now, you are simply inside me
 I blink as you consume my very insides
 I feel faint and you turn me mushy
 It hurts and I feel like I’m losing myself
  a little bit at a time
At times, I wish you would stop
 gnawing away at me
I accept, with my heterozygosity,
 that my children would be bound
 to have crabby dispositions
As I wonder if anything will be left of me,
 a secret thrill quivers at my core:
 I envision your searching mandibles
 encircling the tip of my seed,
 devouring me completely

I thank your universe
I speak it to your lips
I kiss it to your ear

On Buddha’s belly
bumble bees buzz
fuzz tickles
sweet stings
lips drip kiss
full of honey

With a wistful gaze
 you wondered aloud about
how we are living out our movies,
 wearing our masks,
 following our scripts.
Wondered what your mother and father
 and the rest of your team of angels
 might be thinking of you,
 your hair spiritedly disheveled —
 a wild iris accented with streaks of gray —
I thrilled to take in your face,
 suddenly realizing the splotches
 on your cheeks weren’t bad makeup
 but simply your ruddy flesh.
I got lost in your pouty baby lips
 whose pink smudged past your cupid's bow
 — not lipstick, mind you — just a natural blending.
I feasted on your two too cute buckteeth.
 Your outer incisors curved to match the
  bend off your bottom lip.
I drunk in your large eyes
 as they peered off into the distance,
 perhaps resting upon some spiritual plane,
 and such assured, adept creases caressed them.
You transformed into some cherubic Hispanic
 version of Marilyn Monroe-cum-Isabella Rossellini.

I, who had witnessed my body
 dissolve into blisters over the years
 and fought tooth and nail for a few more
 in the vain hope of getting it back
 to finally be able to sit at a table with you
  over a cup of coffee
  and share a slice of cake.
 

Announcement:
— Beware —
Fierce beauty is on the loose!

You may come across it on your way to work,
 on a walk,
 on a trip to the grocery store.
No place is safe!

Your neighbor, a coworker,
— even a random stranger —
may be in possession of it.
There is no telling who it might be!

Should you encounter said beauty,
— this is a warning! —
if you drink it in with your eyes
 and allow it into your soul,
 it will eviscerate you,
— I repeat —
complete annihilation of the soul.

Tell-tale symptoms include
a deep, burning sensation that seems to linger forever.

Stay on the lookout!
That is all.

It’s a nice day
 for a latte
 and a wrecking ball
Inner beauty can’t be seen
 but words kill
So powerful
 they cast a spell
 of utter destruction
 inside my chest
What once was buildings
 is now just sky
 with little clouds
 and little birds, chirping

In my youth, I was pretty —
my skin so smooth.
Then I got used —
 stretched out —
I was clingy —
A cover for others' purposes.
Now I’m wrinkled and frumpy
 and no one is interested in me.
At least I fulfilled my destiny.