your first book arrived today
with a cover curious
as the tumbleweed of beard hinting,
hair wild as clouds
the day we shot java
and geometrically correct sandwiches
through an afternoon
long on chemistry,
shy on time and the comforts
of familiarity.

i keep setting it aside,
not certain I want to know you
or discover, coincidentally,
i bear slender resemblance
to Hanoli the barwench,
or possibly, your real-life consort.