Kindred

The firelight tickles her little bare toes and casts shadowy phantoms across her ivory visage. She smiles and laughs during deep conversation that I cannot hope,
in my feeble grasp of humanity,
to comprehend.

I am not a stupid man, and yet I feel a fool in her presence. I can't help but wonder if she even notices me. For who am I? No one. What am I? Just another suitor? No.
For a suitor would make the effort,
and I am frozen in time.

A time when I mattered to someone. Someone who is a phantom. A ghost. A memory. And in my frozen state I am lost to life. Lost to the possibility of a new love. But truth will show through, and I see now that I
am not lost.

Merely a coward.

Afraid to let go. Afraid to reach out to one who might be a kindred spirit, but one who
does not fear. She loves. Life.

And I am too afraid to let go and fall
in love
again.