I toiled all day on this…

Well, I didn’t really toil all day, but the idea for this poem had been floating around in my head for a while, and I had to take some serious time to snatch it out of the air.   In any case, I hope y’all like it.  

Recognition

There are moments when I don’t know you.

When I’ve lost you in a crowd,
your face becomes flat and anonymous
like all of the others,
as if you are hardening yourself
to the shoulders pushing in around you,
to the faces that are as blank as your own.

For a moment, when I’ve spotted you,
and you’ve spotted me, and our eyes lock,
my warm, eager gaze bounds up to you
like a dog you haven’t seen for years
and don’t immediately recognize,
one that you’re afraid of. 
For a moment, you are the person I know,
but you’re not, you are the person I love,
but you’re not. 

But only for a moment.

Or in restaurants, when I’ve excused myself
for a minute, and left you alone,
and return to see you as anyone in the world
would see you: shoulders hunched, protective
and unwelcoming, like an animal tensed,
ready to spring away. 

In that moment, you are
cautious but vulnerable, shuttered closed
like a house before the hurricane,
with so many precious things inside
to hold close, to keep away from the wind
flailing at the windows.

But only for a moment.  Always
just a moment.  Then your gaze reaches out
to embrace mine.  Then,
you throw open the shutters
and let the light pour in, and I am
warmed again.