Shades of the heart

An old free-verse piece but one I quite like.

sometimes at dusk,
I'm swept away in thought
when I see the night
just before it quietly blooms
incanting visions of you

as pale haloes
of the waking street lamps
as mingling recondite shadows

these are like the shades of the heart
the subtle hues, that set us apart
testify that our souls were once alone

like the way these shadows,
when i stare - render sometimes,
your face like a charcoal smear on the dark
and your gazing eyes caught in a single
breathless instant when you plainly
stare back, desireless, emptied
setting on the gasping silence
of the image before our minds
which is no longer familiar

but an invisible passion
a swirl of contained emotions
without words or meanings
a restless hot opalescence

there, we behold love and it is strange
it is strange and it is real
if only for that single breathless instant
when we saw, only through the shades of the heart
and knew nothing ~

not even a name ~