University of Virginia, Gymnasium

February 7, 2014

University of Virginia, Gymnasium

What about her made you stop

and notice, in a gym full

of sweat and clanking weights?

Was it something about her eyes, or her muscle,

or the way her hair was pulled back

as she did her set of bicep curls, or squats?

The way you tell it,

you had just been saying to a buddy of yours

that you were done with the dating scene,

that you were ready just to find a girl and settle down,

when you walked into the gym

and found her.

I’m sure you didn’t know then how this would lead

to joyrides in her beloved baby-blue T-bird,

or taking sunny pictures together in front of the Leaning Tower,

or raising three blond children whom you would call raccoons,

or owning a big blue fifteen-seater van good for road trips and wind-surfing excursions

and moving your family across the country, twice.

But in that moment, I think I know

what it was that caught your attention:

it was her mouth.

Not the small bump below the lower lip,

which you would grow to love

(and which I would inherit),

but the way her teeth were gritted and her lips were set,

a thin line of determination

against gravity,

against any natural force,

against the thought coursing through her own blood

that no, this is impossible as she made her muscles move

again and again, weight after weight.

It was her mouth that showed the moment

when ease ends and strength begins.

It was her mouth that made you stop and think,

“I could get along with a girl like that.”