Merely

I do not expect our hands or lips to touch
you know as well as I, unrequited
is my love for you, if I may say so much
yet know in you I would have delighted

full glad am I we’re here another year
but sad am I on me, you with disdain
will never look upon me with fairer eyes
nor think “O, he is fine” in your fair brain

around you I feel shy and coy and bumbling
what can I say or do to change your mind?
I am not politic not tall nor handsome
merely a man, and somewhat unrefined

merely a man, that loves merely a woman
not more nor less, and nothing moreso human.

(September 2004)