Author's website: http://www.geocities.com/unhingedds/

Disclaimer: Still not mine. Just see if I write the fat old man in the red suit any more letters about what I want for Christmas.

Author's Notes: One of my rare forays into poetry-I promise I won't do it again any time soon

Story Notes:

Eyes of the Beholder
By MR

You do not realize your own beauty

Lying here in our bed, the first hint of sunlight filtering through the curtains Gilding your body with its warmth
The curves of your back, the wiry muscularity of your arms The face that has, over time, become as well known me to as my own.

How can you fail to realize the effect you have on me? Why it is I watch you avidly, through half-lidded eyes?

As we work, I track your every movement. You have a looseness about you that defies my understanding You don't so much walk as glide
When you run, it takes my breath away
Watching how you move, how your body flows, Wishing I shared your grace.

You laugh when I call you beautiful
Turning the mirror back on me, so I see myself as you do

Before you, I never took pleasure in my own body I worked hard to maintain the level of fitness required for my work But seldom gave thought to how I looked Except as far as my professional appearance required

When we make love, I see myself in your mirror Bigger than you, muscular,
My skin so pale next to yours

You tell me you love the whiteness, the smoothness Like snow, you say
A vast playground you mark at will with tongue and teeth You call me your Ice Prince, but I can only melt at your touch

And when it is over, the burning sated, the fires banked The contrast between us holds my attention White and gold, intertwined with abandon The wildness of your hair against my chest The short, almost colorless stubble when we kiss.

We look, you say, like a pair of debauched angels Wallowing in all our glory
Unafraid of any possible consequence
Living for each moment as it comes

I owe you this freedom
The fact that I am most myself in your arms The fact that you show your true self to me We laugh even as we tell each other how beautiful we are

And we are both right
For with the eyes of love, all things are beautiful.

End Eyes of the Beholder by MR: psykaos42@yahoo.com

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