Limerance
In my ‘only woman in a
man’s world’ career
I didn’t respond
to unspoken invitations
for twenty years plus.
But in my new world
I let down my guard,
and let love limbo into my heart.
I love a man who
appears defensive at first
but deep down is a teddy bear.
Honest eyes, bee stung lips,
and a face wide open,
a man who is almost an adult
but not quite, in all the best ways —
a man who is kind, opens doors
and pulls out my chair for me;
who doesn’t censor every word I speak,
every thought I begin to form;
who actually hears me when I talk,
and meets my eyes without averting his gaze.
My smile becomes extravagant
when I think of him.
I limp emotionally from one rare
sighting to the next.
I light up at his name
in my ‘inbox’,
I try to resist ringing him,
just to hear his voicemail.
My heart tilts when I see him.
I want him to laugh in my bed,
I want him to hold me all night.
I want him to flatten his fur against me,
to see it wear away over years of love.
I want to feel his weight on my body,
his breathless passion on my neck.
I want him to make rumpled love to me,
until my body quivers, but not my head.
I know it’s wrong to love him,
but I’m no good at being right.
He is unavailable and unaware
that he has seared my soul,
cracked my heart.
I will love him until
the tundra melts.
(Sheila Wakefield, Northumberland)
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- Second Aeon
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- Shearsman
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- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
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- Yellow Crane, The