The Glance


Men and women when they see each other
A bit perplexed by the formality
Deny the arrangement altogether
And yearn for answers from infinity

To a million questions and dichotomies
Created by our human existence
About relationships and economies
And the vital parts of what we call sense

A woman is never such a stranger
Although the loveliness can be scary
One cannot say there's that much danger
In the stylistics of being contrary

Nor in the careful glance that one may give
To the one who compels such attention 
For those reasons no more prohibitive
Than the dynamics of transportation

From one minute to the next here underground
In a stainless tube moving to the west
The crescent mouth pouts a shape so profound
As the arabesque eyes blink twice in jest

Rome, 29 October 2006