What I Really Meant to Tell You

I just wanted you to know
that the words that came
out of my mouth today
weren’t at all what I wanted you to hear.
In place of “Excuse me,”
I meant to tell you that your eyes
are the exact shade of blue
that El Greco used for the robe of God
in his famous Day of Judgement,

and if you heard me say
“Could you pass me a straw?”
what I actually said was that
I wish that I could sit by you
and write endless poems
about the grace of your hands.

Also, when I said “good-bye”, I meant it,
but next to that last e was a single,
silent declaration of my love,
(in case you didn’t hear).

This remains one of my favorite poems that I've written. I was looking at it tonight as I perused older poetry files on my computer, which I do from time to time to edit bits here and there (it's remarkable how there are always little things you want to switch around no matter how polished you thought the poem was). To think that one of my favorite poems was inspired by none other than the infamous TFB. Irony.