You Form the Feminine (For Someone Else)

Your voice carries across the room

even though we are supposed to be working in pairs.

My voice is smaller, just loud enough

so my partner can hear.

I’m too quiet, too shy you’d say.

And when you say it I shrink a little further,

even though I want to be bigger, to be more for you.

How can I be other than what I am?

Across the room you give yourself easily,

so unlike me. I keep the best of myself for you.

I watch you show her the book we worked from

alone together for two months.

Does she see my eyes rest upon the back of your head,

my face redden as you gesture for emphasis and that ugly gold ring

flashes?  She’ll ask you

about her, but I won’t.  I’ll hold out

false hope and count the days

I see you ringless and weigh them in my favor,

although my guess is they weigh nothing.

Still, I ask silently, What am I to you?

as you tilt your head and act interested

and form the feminine words

the exact same way you’d say them to me.

Reach for me once more to show me

that I am more than just some girl you know from class,

the girl you sit by every day now

and twice a week last spring.

Tell me that all the accidents of touch that happened then

were never accidents

One more time wrap your hand around mine

and claim me as your own.

Reviews

[Antonio Valentino]

Elizabeth this writing was heartfelt and genuine.
I so enjoyed it.

A feeling of unrequited affection, I know well.
Superb job!

Antonio