Eclipse (Poetry)

If I had made you less than beautiful
you’d still be here,
for no one ever steals the ugly ones,
the flawed, the plain, imperfect girls,
instead seducers lie in wait
for such as you — the rare, the loved, the sweet.

Sly as any goblin king he came —
just as I feared he might —
quiet as a shadow at my back,
grinning as he turned away your thoughts,
inch by inch, and filled your head
with whispers in the dark.

So easy fooling innocence, he wrapped
enchantments round you,
blinding pretty eyes to our small world,
until it seems that he’s become the centre
of your universe and everything’s eclipsed
save his cold star.

And now he’s cut you off from me, severed
every link before I really knew it,
snatched you, keeps you far beyond my reach
while hurt and anger leave me weak,
he’s changed you to a stranger smiling
all your smiles exclusively for him.

Some nights I dream I hear you calling out —
a child in need of comfort
the one low sound that penetrates all sleep
and jolts me wakeful, anxious, caught
responding even though I know you’re gone,
your bedroom empty.

There was a time before you were —
before birth, before my love imagined you,
and now I find I’ve wished you back among
ambitions never realized, kept safe
with might-have-beens, if-onlys
lying in a secret drawer.