Why this?

The occasional piece of my own and a generous helping of others' creations I find inspiring. Site is named for a beloved book by one of my favorite writers, Italo Calvino, whose fanciful work lights--and delights--my soul.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Drawn In

“That reminder that it can be different, that you need not go through your life unknown but that you probably still will—that is the part that's almost unbearable." —Curtis Sittenfeld in Prep

You were on the train
drawing everyone
around you, your hand
nimble as a gymnast,
pencil wheeling clean
across the sharp white
paper of your sketchbook.

I sat watching—
your minute-quick studies
animate, lines articulate,
the way you nailed
the slyest of ‘staches,
curl captured with
the faintest of merriment.

Then your eyes were on
me. I tried not to look
up from my reading
as you sketched yours
in cool graphite. And
how difficult that was!
Hard not to check in
often, hope to steal
something affirming.
Still, I managed to restrict
my glances to a scant few.
(That woman could’ve
been anyone.)

You must’ve aced it,
though, for the chill—
exquisite—
that scaled my spine
as you sat rendering
me, your focus narrowed
to almost nothing,
my thin wooden cylinder
weakening, was the rarest
kind, reserved for
the handful of times
we’re actually seen.

--me

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