28 THE L-WORD

You said you did not know what love is.
A burst of sunlight on a dark day, I thought.
And if I said the L-word first, paralysis
kept you silent.  But one night you caught
me by surprise.  I heard it clearly like
a bell ringing.  I felt it up and down
my spine.  Such simple syllables can strike
a blow for rapture, turn everything around.
“Now we can move together with a single
beat,”  I thought.  “And speak our hearts without
restraint.  And when we walk together,  mingle
with all those who no longer doubt,
joining,  like two arriving fashionably
late,  love's open and festive company.”