Crush – Carol Jewell

Right in front of me,
unseen.
What did I miss,
how didn’t I know?

Whether fictional
or real,
you were
all real
to me.
I loved you
but, was it just a crush?

Came out at thirty-nine,
surprised myself.
I fondly remember thanking
Aretha Franklin’s breasts
for bringing me to the light.

But if I had figured it out
when I was young and naïve
how different my life would be now.

Some things are better left
unknown,
until they have matured,
ripened,
in their own time.

Carol H. Jewell is a musician, teacher, librarian, and poet living in Upstate New York with her wife, Becky, and their seven cats. She reads constantly, being insatiably curious.