Blade work

Her commonplace will still compel his gaze
as when she’s lugging laundry up the stair
but stops to shift her burden. He’s amazed
to see her skirt ride up and bare
that sweep of thigh, that flashing girlish spline—
it’s lunging beauty, canny and foil-like
always cleaves his breath, impales his mind.
A darting strike, first shot across the years,
that pinned him to the guard line of their life.
From girlish slender to maternal curl
his lover struck, transmuted into wife
but somehow still a lover, still a girl—
A sword-like line, a piercing clarity
transfixing him to years of mystery.

~ Charles Martinuzzi, 2026

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