Love Poem: That Thing

That Thing

Upstairs, I peek at your picture. 
I know I shouldn't but there you are.
Something keeps pulling me back 
To catch just one more eye of your beauty.
O Enobong of Ikot Ekpene, princess of Ibiakpan
Whose beauty brought Eket to its knees.

It is neither your flowery openness
Nor your child-like innocence,
Neither your inner brilliance nor your aura, 
It is neither the manner your lips 
Curve upward when you smile
Nor the way your hips 
Dance with the wind when you walk.

No, it is not the anticipated fresh-scented 
Whiff of intimacy that steams
From your secret region down south 
That has brought me to my knees.

It is that one thing, nameless as it were,
Which no one can take away from you;
That special thing;
That thing
That makes you throw caution to the wind.