BEFORE I SAID YOU WERE BEAUTIFUL

Before I said you were beautiful...
I had talked to your fears and interviewed your peers.
I had perceived your perfume over the phone twice.
And watched your eyes dance shoki when you had diarrhoea.
unlike Adam, I didn't just wake and gave you a name.
I didn't just look at where the sea stopped and called it land,
I listened to silence and waited till it talked back.
Before I said you were beautiful.

I had many questions fill out long questionnaires.
And listened without judging, when they asked why I was asking.
So now I know your three types of smiles,
especially that one just before your wiles.

Before I said you were beautiful,
I had taken in the air you breathed out,
and quizzed it for several minutes.
Then I had the data processed for weeks.
Unlike the sun, my day did not start when I woke.
Before I said you were beautiful.

There were too many things I did not know,
And how I wanted a speciality.
So I paused living with the plan to understand you..
And I hope I made it, I hope it worked.
And since there are no journals that accept such papers,
it has not been peer reviewed.
And the eventual presentation was just five minutes.
I recall that day at the eatery,
When I knew I must speak out or die,
or forever live a lie.
When I said you were beautiful.

© SAMSON ABANNI

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