Dating

I’m in a new relationship.
Just at the beginning.
Not sure yet where it leads.

She’s more than I expected.
Funnier.
Flirtier.
Sexier.
More confident.
Good at boundaries.
Quick to forgive.
Slow to sweat the small stuff.

Still, she startles me sometimes.
I didn’t know her anger could be
so explosive or her tears so sudden.
I didn’t know she was both
iron tough and thin-skin fragile.
I didn’t know she could feel
so happy and alive—so radiant.

I wonder where she came from.
What transformed her.
Why I’ve met her only now at 39.

Who’s to say which influence,
which coincidence, which
serendipitous happenstance
altered her course?

I only know I like her—
this new me.