Expect More

I expect
flesh and bones
and other earthly things
are restricted
to formality
and front doors.

Should someone knock
for directions
or delivery
I'd know no spirit there.

I'd have no expectations.
Spirits and souls
need not knock
I expect.
Their friendly arrival
whispers through keyholes
slips through the hinges
and turns
the deadest bolt.

I hadn't expected you.

The door was locked
and barricaded,
but you drifted into my field of view.
you took a seat by the fire,
inserting yourself deftly

willowy
ethereal
with spirited charm.

You cast your spell
and claimed yourself
a long-lost page of music
named yourself
a work of art
framed humble.

You called yourself
Soulmate.

Eager and entranced,
I could not resist
expecting.

Hoping
that you were the spirit you claimed to be
the soul sent to dance
to revel
in the miracle
of heavenly discourse.

My heart stirred
when you rested there,
and in the fireplace
the smoky flame burned brighter.

Just as surely as dawn follows dusk
I'd been waiting and expecting
wonders miracles hope and you.

Are you so accomplished at trickery
that you'd prefer to fool me
than to be the sister spirit
I'd been promised to expect?

I refuse to believe
I expected too much.

And yet you say you expected nothing from me.

As if it weren't bad enough
that in the midst of holy conversation
you'd refuse to allow me
to hold you in the high esteem
of a soulmate,
expected,
dreamed of
and prayed for.

You would not have me expect
that you could love me.

You would not have me expect
that our meeting was meant to heal us both.

And,
worst of all,
you expected nothing from me.

I thought you were an answer to a prayer,
and you expected nothing.

I hoped we'd lift one another up, but you expected nothing.

You got so much more than you'd expected