Gaze

Follow his gaze when he charts
the globe of your body,
archive each line he traces
with first impression hubris:
the visual scan of locked jawline
on each side that softens
when it reaches common ground kept up

Keep it up, the record of his slide
along the slope of exposed collarbones,
where skeleton and skin have perspired
to create the totem pole that steadies your head

Watch how he outlines eyebrows
shaped not by thread but wire;
only metals that carry current
can frame pupils the color of spark

Document the stare on a vertical quest
of your form,
where along your arm
do eyes expand in obsession,
the arc formed ahead of elbow
where each bend strengthened
the fibers now bare in deserted dress,
or the firmness of the mountain
unmoving in each of your wrists,
the visible channels of green
somewhere in flesh, stretched
in a network unseen so a heart can still beat

How defined is the line of each borrowed rib,
how deep is the canyon enclosed by edges of hip,
does he ogle every fossil turned wrinkle
in palms and prints,
glare at the silhouette
of the arrow assembled by torso
and underarm,
does he glimpse at line suggestive,
decide to park there
his optic inspection

But arrogant are the eyes
that finish the sketch of your figure,
does he not know
that a gaze that ends
challenges mathematicians,
ancient scholars who named you symbols,
defined a line as a dimension
that extends perpetually,
infinitely;
be wary when he looks away,
of the solicitor who attempts
to rewrite geometry