I Will Know You by Cora Windover

I will know you
When I see you.

I will know it in the look in your eyes
When I see you for the for the first time
Like a spark of recognition,
A realization of
All that we could be.

You will be like a book to me,
With a pristine cover, green embossed in gold.
And your name will curl along the spine,
And lines will crack it gently,
Where others have opened you
And used you too roughly.

And you will be new to me.
I will call your name and it will sound unfamiliar,
You'll say mine and perhaps,
We will have to get used to it.

Your book will not be open to me.
But you will know.
We will know that my fingers will turn the first few pages,
That my eyes will roam over that which you've already told me
In a thousand unsaid words
Between lines of typed sympathies
Laid out plainly in our intangible friendship.

And you will be real to me
Like I have tried not to imagine you as.
You will be what you are
And not what I picture you to be.
And I will love you
As you are.
Not for the place you hold in my life,
Or the way I wish you to be.
I will love you
As I've always loved you
Unconditionally.

I will read you.
I will turn the pages of this well-worn romance novel
Quietly placing myself
At all the parts of your loneliness,
Letting myself into your life
As you have, unconsciously, fit yourself to mine.

I will know you when I see you.
We will meet in some public place,
And we will both be nervous,
And I will write this poem again
Using different words.

And I will open your book
To a new page
And I will write my name in bold, flowing letters.