The Sea’s Flair

Like a breath of fresh air,
From a cold and clammy despair
Fresh, like an ambush from the sea
She was rare,
Few and far between

Parting to the side, her hair
Pour like night over eyes
That let her light shine strong
Unconsciously giving me permission
To do the same

Quick to flash a smile,
But quite easy to rile,
Unforgiving, forcefully magnificent
As if she was fire from within
Like a sunset living in the lining of her skin

Casting away the chains of her past,
In my time I’ve seen her
Grow from a fragile, tenuous person
To one that glows and
Is iridescent in her furore

You may not know your own beauty
Or perceive a sense of your own worth
Until it reflects back on to you
In her unadorned and honest
Vulnerable yet invincible mirror

(I’d written this in 2017 as part of three separate poems for three separate friends who I met in grad school (I’m still in touch with all of them). Posting it now because I had never put them up, as well as to keep my yearly quota up. I’m back-dating this even though the commit ID should provide the correct timestamp in gitlog.)