no struggle to express

[aquamarcia]

Title: Unspoken Compliment

It's not easy for me
to pay a woman a compliment.
I can say, "That's a cute blouse," or
some other banal thing, speaking
emptily.

A woman mentioned she'd
been paid a compliment.
A co-worker told her she smelled nice.
The words weren't banal at all,
what he said.

Weeks earlier I'd wanted
to pay her a compliment.
I wanted to tell her she smelled nice.
It would not have been banal at all,
what I would've said.

When this woman mentioned
she'd been paid a compliment, (at that later time)
I knew why I couldn't tell her she smelled nice.
The words would not have been banal,
what I couldn't say.

If I spoke to her
to tell her she smelled nice,
the compliment would've meant too much.
The words would've been a caress,
fingers running softly through her hair,
a kiss.

I think we will never be so intimate
that I could pay her such a compliment.

But she does smell nice.