If I shared with you my essence
Opened up and let you in
Would it be just the beginning
Or the beginning of the end?
If I shared my very spirit
My heart, body, mind and soul -
Would you do the same intensely
Or simply turn from me and go?
**
If I let you see my essence
Would your eyes be satisfied -
With the binding and the title
And the contents locked inside?
Would you read each page with wonder
As if the words were always new?
Would you trade the dog eared copy
For a Volume Number Two?
**
If I let you hear my essence
Spoken softly in your ear -
Would it speak the very words
You dreamed you’d someday hear?
Would the echos touch the places
Where no one had ever gone?
Would their resonance lift you higher
Than any height you’d ever known?
**
If you inhaled my small essence
A light and subtle scent -
Would you inhale me deeply
Then breathe me out again?
Would you like the fragrance?
Would you infuse it with your own?
Would it be the kind of smell that
Warmly – made you think – you’re home?
**
If I let you taste my essence
Would you discern the subtle taste -
If it’s not a sassy salsa
In a jalapeno base?
Would the taste insatiate you?
Would it satisfy your needs?
Could your thirst and hunger both be quenched
By a woman-child like me?
**
If I let you touch my essence
Would you plumb the depths inside -
With a gentle curiosity
That could never be denied?
Would you venture past those pleasures
To my fragile inner core -
And protect me when I’m vulnerable
Overwhelmed , unsure?
**
Would you hold at bay each fear I have
Would my heart, for once, be spared?
Would the echos that can haunt me -
Steer clear of what we shared?
My essence can’t be taken
And, no, it won’t be sold -
But, I can give it freely
Or leave it silently on hold.
**
If a man exists who has a silver tongue
And nerves of steel -
A heart of gold and head of reason
The ability to feel…
An essence waits in limbo
Not lonely, but alone.
Defending faith in fairy tales
And, too, what dreams I’ve known.
