Fragments of Closeness
to touch
touch
if you could
the gap
the search for a stopgap
a plank
long ago
elsewhere
again something separates
*
the story you tell
gentle words
that sometimes remove
sometimes add to
the pain of whatever widens
yet seems to narrow
*
at best you think
you write
a rope bridge
you’d like to bring yourself
to the other side
like to bring
so much to rest
*
your words
warm leaves in my hands
like a nest
or is it merely your voice
your sound
*
coming closer
keeping at a closer
distance
*
when water streams over your skin
you wonder how close it is
the skin
the water
or when a brook floods over grass
*
the haze
the blur
when coming close
the other face goes out of focus
you close your eyes
you close your eyes
the world vanishes
*
even when a hand reaches
grazes the cotton
of your sleeve
a slight caress
you didn’t expect
your eyes beckoned
*
how to tell
in a single image
whoever has vanished
stands on the sidewalk
or is it a riverbank
long ago
*
you turned away
have turned away
still wait
for that closeness
to come from what separates
and spans