Should they ask if we’re together,
I’d like to act naturally, but need rehearsal.
Take a page from a favorite local poet:
Answer a question with a question (classic).

Have you ever stayed up well past
your much-needed bedtime to exchange words,
laughter’s edges on the late hours, for weeks on end?
When did you last glow, free enough to set aside
your quandry and pain, charged with
a cautious hope to fix your flaws and face your fears?
And when a fear began to surface, what did you do?

Have you ever forgotten yourself in the mirror
when there was another person there with you?
When did a different song find you every night?
When did you last believe in bliss, lose
your footing following your star?

Did you see someone else’s birth chart,
and have reliable suspicions?
What do you know about Meyers-Briggs,
and what do you expect from an ENFP-INFJ pairing?

Do I need to tell you anything?
If we share how we feel now, does our future
sink into the holes of what you hope for?

Are we really the types to openly brag?
Not at my age, not at his?
Is the young heart no more an iceberg than
the older heart is an opening in a garden gate?

When did someone remember you
needed fireflies among the woods
in the Arboretum?