You are
the most alluring kind of
disorienting:
the way the glassy surface of the lake
mirror-images the sun
until the slightest ripple
turns it to shattered light
and reveals the layered depths beneath.
You are
all the things we (girls) learn to love but fear:
the tall, athletic stride
the effortless electrifying smile
the ability to make anyone feel like
they’re the only one in the room
when your eyes meet theirs.
But somehow
these would-be weapons have always stayed safely strapped to your belt
All that you’ve ever wielded
was kindness
an earnest and sometimes self-effacing honesty
and these parts of you
can disarm more than all the others.
I realize only now
maybe you didn’t know
what you could’ve done
with just a smile.
Maybe you didn’t get the societal bullshit narratives written on the stone walls around you
Maybe you needed me to tell you
what I thought you always knew
not so you would be
that “thing” the predictable, typecast guy is
but so you would know
how breathtaking it is
that you’re not.