Miss Apprehension Poem by Jan Tchamani

You curl there, long, lean and lazy,
All warm from the shower,
Eyes flashing, an invitation...
All teeth and sparkle, your eyes, your smile,
Stretched like a centrefold cat,
You have evidently done this before.
I fiddle with buttons, twirl a curl of hair, pick at a hangnail, giggle nervously,
Playing for time.
You were someone else's
Before you were mine.
Did she look sweeter, standing on this very spot, perhaps, framed in an aura of candlelight?
Were her legs longer, less hairy,
Was her stomach flatter, her breasts perkier, her eyes less red
From too much chilli in the con carne you served as a prelude?
I sidle round the laundry basket
Into your velvet pool of maleness
And leap into the mystery of your love
Because, after all, messing up
Is less scary than
Missing out.