Chantel

In Bryant Park the air
is sweet of summer’s birth
despite the day’s exhaustion.
You are lovely,
Chantel –
like it.

As strangers tussle for
chairs when the music cuts
I pilfer a glimpse into you –
your laughter,
a cascade of silken grace,
sirenic as the night.

And just like that I release my eyes
like a firefly clipping its flare,
so to not startle you, or
worse, disrupt your luminance –
for, permitted, I’d dwell in this gaze
for a flock of seasons.

more by JUN HUA EA

Photograph by Mr. James Ackerley