‘To an Eager Lover’ and Other Poetry by Adrian Fillion

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To an Eager Lover

This isn’t an unreasonable demand:
you have to learn my story with your hands.

As a man, you naturally want to know
a woman in the way you know the world:
from start to finish, everything in a row.
But knowledge isn’t wisdom; in my world,
straight lines won’t take you where you want to go.

Put aside your reason, but not your senses.
Don’t let your mind direct you, just observe.
And let my body teach you, as we dance,
intuition and the logic of curves,
the wisdom of desire without defense.

Know me now, let your unreasoning hands
tell me the story of your heart’s demands.

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Stasis

It’s as if we never loved. How else
To think about it? Though you’ve left a void
In me, oddly I find myself devoid
Of any feeling. My heart neither melts
Nor hardens at the sight of you tonight.
No doubt you feel the same. Your presence here,
Even when you pass me very near,
Is like your absence: neither dark nor bright,
Not sad, not happy, neither hot nor cold—
A passing thought or daydream. We’ve achieved
A stasis that I wouldn’t have believed.
We don’t love. We don’t hate. We’re just annulled.
No sorrow. No joy. No agony. No bliss.
I thought that only death would be like this.

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Adrian Fillion, a retired proofreader, lives in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He won the 2018 Ron Boggs Memorial Poetry Contest, hosted by the Johns Creek Poetry Group in Johns Creek, Georgia. Several of his poems have appeared in small, local publications.