First Date

My heart thickens in my throat
when you ask for my coat
you walk me down the stairs
and pull out my chair
my hands start to shake
when we look out at the lake
but you only look at me
as if I'm someone rare and unseen
and you don't ask me what life means
you only ask me about this moment
and if this time is being well spent
for the polite dinner chatter
suddenly doesn't seem to matter
and we are falling in love like a fable
over the lakeside dinner table
and when we leave holding hands
we run to the lake across the sand
and sink our feet into the water
with our legs over the dock where we totter
and when the police come to scour
for lovers at the lake after hours
we slip down into the starlit watery foam
hiding under the dock's protective dome
where his lips meet mine
under the cracks of the dock dripping with moonshine
and our moments feel like a lifetime
as the morning sun begins to climb
we walk across the sand like we go around the world
with the map of our love between our fingers curled
and our lives across this sand are drawn
as we forever walk and fall in love even past the dawn.


-anna sluder

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