A Distant Muse

         A Distant Muse

A woman so far removed from me
Has every virtue in possibility
But nowhere to go unfortunately, but down
Into the pool of reality, and drown.

A crush is best, at my insistence,
When nerve and breath both keep their distance
Proper to an intellectual wink and flirt
Lest an ill-advised sexual thing should hurt.

And should this drift to nothingness
Of unsatisfaction, then I profess
That a muse cannot well garnish a life
Too scared to shed its tarnish of strife.

But silly me, for I can't stop thought
Of a distant lass who's got me caught
Not with beauty or secrets told
But my curiosity's tenacious hold.

Not that I mind being so captured,
My pen spinning and imagination enraptured
With dreams of a crush I can only afford
By remembering reality might not accord.

Her feelings worn both loose and tight
With some hopeful and others out of sight,
And so I plan to be praising her still
Neither against my body nor against my will

Unless circumstance is right
And we mutually fulfill.