Answer The Question!

ANSWER THE QUESTION

“Susie?” Softly from behind me.
“Mmm”, I answer absently whilst drinking in the scenery.
“Susie?”, this time though more urgently,
prompting me to turn and encounter you on bended knee;
ring box proffered, gesture of entreaty -
a promise for all eternity.

Adrenaline slaps me back to reality
seeing things with renewed perspicacity
through pupils dilated like eclipsing spheres,
black and inky as bottomless meres.
I do not hear a word you speak,
blood thundering in my ears and staining my cheeks.
Sharp indrawn breath as shock takes hold,
teary eyes drawn to diamond encrusted gold.

A blushing bride is what you choose to see, -
overawed, happy, excited, surprised;
your ardour reflected back at you from my shiny eyes.
A misinterpretation of signals on your part; blind to the turmoil in my heart.
Feelings of horror, dread and constrict.
Tears, not of joy but of pain I’ll inflict.

Your puppy dog eyes gaze and beseech
as I am rendered devoid of all speech.
The brightness of your smile wavers and palls
as my continued silence your rhetoric stalls.
“Just answer the question” is your earnest plea
so my feet do the talking as I turn and flee.