Love at first sight. It’s the story and stuff of my adult life. The first time I looked at him, I didn’t just love the way he looked. I loved the way he looked at me. His intense gaze showed he wanted to know the real me; to care for and to possess me. He stared at me with an urgency that made me breathless, awed, dizzy, hot, wet, and happy beyond comprehension. I literally didn’t want to blink, to take away his visual caress.
When he smiled, I saw a facial expression before me I had never known existed. It said: “I’m so vulnerable that I will not take you seriously if I have the slightest reason to think you might hurt me.” Then, as we moved to the small dance floor, I caught another first sight: the mirrors reflected golden sunlight coming through the skylight. The image of the two of us looked just perfect. He was too short for me and I was too pudgy for his skinny frame, and yet I thought we were in Divine light; that there was simply no other couple on earth more beautiful than we were.
What looks like a whirlwind courtship to those on the outside feels like a life-altering communion to the couple having that courtship; what seems “too fast” to others is experienced as ‘at last’ to the lovers. So, it was with my man and me.
The tender intimate fantasy in his eyes (yes, call it ogling) was more than flattering: it took my breath away. It still does.
David is 81 years young and the author of 33 published poems and stories in recent US, UK & Canadian literary venues.