In Kind

And so I shut my eyes and said goodnight---

because that was the right thing to do

and I turned my head this way

and that

so that they could never credit me with unrequited love

or call me pathetic

or disillusioned

or weak anywhere but---

the knees

But I was not as dumb as I looked---

or as my enamored nature for couture alluded to

I was big eyed

with a big memory

and I was your flavor/then/then but never now---

and I had nothing more to prove---

save for my immunity to heartbreak

and my ability to look the other way