she walked in when I was on stage trying to decide which one of my
10
pieces to recite first,
I counted her steps and she sat exactly 
10
steps from the exit,
she had a beautiful smile that radiated from inside of her that it looked like she had a halo of
10
stars shining above her head, and the first 
10 words that came to my mind were “oh damn that lady is a perfect 10 by 10”
so I rushed through my set in exactly 
10 minutes
eager for our 10
senses to communicate without verbal conversation 
I did not wait for my friend’s 10 cents worth of advice
as I rushed to her side
mind preoccupied by the fact that maybe she only loves the poetry and not the poet
so I didn’t get what she said in the first 10 seconds of our conversation
I realised that she was unique after the first 10 minutes
when we could have been on a first name basis
but she had no pretentions and wanted to get to know me better first
right then my mind was lost in 10 parallel universes of imagination
and I was thinking that maybe after the first 
10 days
I would have kidnapped her smell, her aroma and bottled it
such that in my hours of loneliness
during her absence
I would just open it and fill the whole room with her presence
and after the first 
10 
days
I would have memorised her face, her voice and her poise
such that on those days when at 
10 
pm
my mind is overcome by selfish needs
and body driven by selfish impulses 
I would just have to call her memory to mind and fall to a contented sleep
and after the first 10 weeks
we would have become the next Bonnie and Clyde
inseparable
me and my girlfriend would play on the 
10tables of our relationship and we would 
enligh10, the world on the true definition of what love is
and after the first 10 months
I would pamper her with 10fold
at10tion
never 10 my back on her
put friends before her
or have something more important to do besides her
never let our relationship degenerate from us to being mere lovers and not friends
if it happens by mistake I would make a mental 
10around
fas10 my mind on the 10 words my mother told me about relationships
which are: it is the death of friendship that kills all love
has10 to use the words that keep the fires aflame
by never speaking words that speak love to her heart
but those that seek love from her heart
words that speak hope to her soul but those that seek hope from her soul
I would main10 
the 10 commandments of love
avoid 10sion at all costs
and employ 10derness and patience
I tried to envision the first 10 years of our marriage
the fulfilment of our first 10 dreams
when we have our first 10 cars, first 10 houses, first 10 . . .
right then I stopped myself because I did not have the 10
digits that make us communicate via mobile phones
and as I took them
I only hoped she would not break my heart like my first 10
girlfriends did . . .