Most Beautiful Just Before

"most beautiful just before",
right?  extend the moment, delay infinitely, delicious tension, never
fulfilled, duller disappointment instead of dull knife,
etc.

most beautiful just before
after I heard your voice and before I opened my eyes
after I saw your face and before I heard your words
you, sighing before you used your magic potion grin
me, seeming sweetly inattentive, mopping up internal organs,
chewing on my hair

finding differences, liking
differences, liking to
have differences, finding stardust,
being elsewhere, being nowhere, being
right there

being everywhere

especially late at night
discussing hints with electric ghosts
tv blaring in the background, movies in review
sleuthing here, a little sleuthing here, a little bit of
mystery

darkness follows
smelling pillows
pulling blanket back onto the bed
hearing something dramatic in my head, sleeping instead

as a conservative in all things but politics
keeping that which endears him most-—a theory
untested, empirically ignored
selfish? No, self-preserving
something real has the fate of death

I like my tension, thank you, unbruised
Just before creation: perfection, coordination, pixie dust.