Sitting next to you, sitting next to me, I drown in the expectations of a friend. I wander amongst the known in a way of constant comfort, as shyness overcomes the mind of an open heart. The night falls and the known is found uncomfortable and cold. Life's confusion has tormented me for years, but has gifted me with an understanding of love and care.

I act, but softly, as I ground myself with an unnatural heat. Overtaken by the vibrations of the music, my thought sweep through an imaginative mind. Feelings of retrospective sadness mesh with what is and what could be, in an everchanging fate of destiny.

I walk amongst one who steals my attention upon every glance. How must I convey the beauty of a woman I barely know? I remember a time when such a simple interaction was met with certainty and boldness. What happened to the romantic side of me?

The walls crash down in a spiral of illusion. I find myself free of fear, yet incapable. I admire the beauty of a soul never seen, traveling innocently beside me. Romance in nature, love and community filled the air with hope without immediate action. Breaths become longer and eyes close as my mind wanders into a moonlit gaze.

As dawn arrives in mist, the universe calls for the end of an adventure. Curiousity overcomes shyness in the absense of flesh, and a feeling shoes itself genuine and without expectation. The road may been traveled before, but something is different.

A new adventure awaits in the beautiful unknown.

- JW... Oct. '23