ecliptic

Something happened that night—
a supernova
of verboten emotions exploding in my chest,
awashing my body and soul in painful longing.
A longing to be so perilously
close.
I stood, leaning against the wall,
with your arm gently around my waist,
like a dream,
like it had always belonged there.
One touch,
a force of nature that I was powerless to resist.
And yet.
I stood there,
too afraid to look into your eyes,
afraid of falling into them,
afraid I'd never escape their gravity—
two mysterious black stars floating in oceans of green,
outshining all other heavenly bodies and
threatening to pull me into their terrifyingly beautiful
depths.
The words I wanted to say that couldn't be said;
the things I wanted to do that couldn't be done,
all lost in that silent eternity,
like so many amorous comets
adrift in the empty void of space,
never to be seen by another living soul
and far from the light of
your face.
Only the memory remains
frozen forever in an enduring now of
contentment.
Or maybe that's just how I'd like to remember it—
the dawning of a dream not meant to be.