I Would Be a Fool

I would be a fool To love you for your hair alone, (Though I could) , The unfurled flag of your femininity Stirs my blood like a patriotic song. Your curls are dappled clouds That stretch like cresting waves Across an inverted oceanic sky, Fall from the horizon of your face (Attempt to draw attention From the lovely length of neck But fail) , and finally break On a quiet beach of white shoulders. Poet's Notes: For Yuliya Verbitskaya - March 1990 This poem was written while I was asleep. As I dreamed, I was sitting at a desk writing this poem for Yuliya. I woke up and simply wrote it down almost exactly as I remembered it (with very little fine-tuning). This poem marks the only time that has ever happened to me, though some mornings, I will wake up with a title or the first line or two of a new poem.