There are guys who think they have charm <br />and are so confidently wrong that <br />the molecules in our stomach grate together <br />as we watch them get away with it <br /> <br />and those who don’t know they have it <br />and are deservedly babe-magnets <br />and what makes you think I envy them <br /> <br />and those who know they have it <br />but behave like gentlemen <br />so we try to like them <br /> <br />and those who so successfully <br />have it and overuse it that <br />we call upon the Fates and Furies <br />saying hey did you see that guy over there <br /> <br />you, I think, Billy Collins <br />know you have it but <br />don’t rate it as important <br />as writing poetry, so <br /> <br />one moment, it’s a one-liner <br />waiting for the full second house; <br /> <br />another, taking the short cab ride <br />from the Algonquin to the New Yorker <br />smiling secretly but <br />purely from the pleasure of sharing itself; <br /> <br />or sometimes, it’s chiselled perfectly <br />on a fragment of smooth white marble <br />lifted out of the Aegean Sea <br />which sparkles timelessly <br />because that’s how it is<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/this-charm-thing/
