How to Appraise a Possible Mate
“When I meet a man I always know
Within a nanosecond whether I
Would ever want to make love with this guy,
And if I wouldn’t, why then should I go
With him to dinner, lunch, or anywhere?”
She has a point: personal attraction
To anyone begins not with abstraction
But with particulars: his voice, his hair,
The stubble on his chin, well dressed or not.
Perhaps his wrist protrudes beyond his cuff;
His voice is high, sounds as if it has been caught
Or snagged on something he has half-forgot,
A voice not smooth, but neither is it rough,
Sincere, perhaps, but that is not enough.