Untitled (Summer 2006)

(Oh man, the last stanza of this is one of my favs ever. This poem has gone through lots of reincarnations, this is the last and simplest. I find myself coming back to this over and over...)

It's just that we had words.
And kisses
with words hidden inside them.
I can't stop reciting them,
quietly, under my breath.
I feel the shape of my lips
as they form the syllables
we invented together.
I listen to their cadence,
concentrate on how they taste
in my mouth.

But how do you start to tell someone
exactly how you feel,
when your hands and lips
are trembling
and the words get tangled up
in fear.
I almost can't remember when it was
that we held hands
and left important things
unsaid.