Everyone's Eyes

I don't need your snake oil
or your secret tattoos
frankincense lightly dripped on your wrists
mispronounced prayers to Shiva and Vishnu
I don't need you to tell me you love me
or look starry-eyed when I kiss you
sweep the blue bruises along the inside of your white thigh
with a tissue
after I've misused you
don't place me in the same bracket as every other misguided fool
don't have the pals place bets
on whose the real lover in the room

you give everyone here the same eyes as you give me
same smile
same two-step shaking the bangles on your feet
you bless with a kiss and caress every old timer spinning a beat
meet'n'greet with dirty denizens
feasting on a carcass of rotten gossip like black forest wolves on venison
by divine design you've got a big enough heart for all their need

and it's so GOTDAMN genuine

but I'm not one of them
I've lived my life defiantly separating myself from most of them
and when by fire light it so transpired you chose me
I boasted then
promoted to sprout limbs and walk from the shapeless ocean
into the world of men
oh how we sinned
you and I

so
don't promise me a future
fuck that
if anything
I'll take the past
I just want you to give me those same eyes
from across that fire light
that first night I caught your glance.

TA