Eyes of the Beholder

by MR

You do not realize your own beauty

Lying here in our bed, the first hint of sunlight filtering through the curtains

Gilding your body with its warmth

The curves of your back, the wiry muscularity of your arms

The face that has, over time, become as well known me to as my own.

How can you fail to realize the effect you have on me?

Why it is I watch you avidly, through half-lidded eyes?

As we work, I track your every movement.

You have a looseness about you that defies my understanding

You don't so much walk as glide

When you run, it takes my breath away

Watching how you move, how your body flows,

Wishing I shared your grace.

You laugh when I call you beautiful

Turning the mirror back on me, so I see myself as you do

Before you, I never took pleasure in my own body

I worked hard to maintain the level of fitness required for my work

But seldom gave thought to how I looked

Except as far as my professional appearance required

When we make love, I see myself in your mirror

Bigger than you, muscular,

My skin so pale next to yours

You tell me you love the whiteness, the smoothness

Like snow, you say

A vast playground you mark at will with tongue and teeth

You call me your Ice Prince, but I can only melt at your touch

And when it is over, the burning sated, the fires banked

The contrast between us holds my attention

White and gold, intertwined with abandon

The wildness of your hair against my chest

The short, almost colorless stubble when we kiss.

We look, you say, like a pair of debauched angels

Wallowing in all our glory

Unafraid of any possible consequence

Living for each moment as it comes

I owe you this freedom

The fact that I am most myself in your arms

The fact that you show your true self to me

We laugh even as we tell each other how beautiful we are

And we are both right

For with the eyes of love, all things are beautiful.

FIN

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