A Meeting In Bruxelles Poem by Nancy Handabile

I met him in a small bar
Tipsy and lightheaded

I looked at him
And experienced a moment of clarity

He sat there alone
We talked and later on
We slowly bonded

He reciting Shakespeare
I Pablo Neruda

I looked at him again
And saw him anew

I threw caution to the wind
And garnered the immense strength

to invite him up
Our companion going his way
I found him by my door

The next thing I recall
Was him loving me
As no man ever had

Taking me to a peak
That my spirit was not willing to reach
Torturing me, teasing me
Withdrawing me from the pleasure
I so desperately needed

Perhaps he was giving me a taste
Of what living without him
Would be like
A feeling that I know and detest now

He drew my tears
I could not hear my voice
All I heard was him
Calling me beautiful.

I didn't want to let him go
I held onto him
Feeling as if my breath
Depended on his very breath

I wept because he
Had weakened me
Weakened my defenses.

Taken my very essence
My heart, my soul

I wanted him desperately
He kissed me in the morning
And in that moment

I trusted him and realized something
That he too did not want to let me go.