Fragments of Closeness

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