It was in her eyes
Where I first read
Words unspoken
Words arising
From her mind
Her heart
Her spirit
In those eyes
Was love
And disappointment
Hope
And discouragement
To hold that gaze
I would have to do better
Have to be
Better
Not just for her
But for myself
In those eyes
I read a truth
About me
I didn’t like
They spoke across a divide
Wide as eternity
Two dim lights
On distant shores
Obscured by the haze
Of time
But for their light
They’d have lost each other
Utterly
Such is the nature of binaries
Each caught in the gravity
Of the other
Their light grew
As they consumed time
With memories
And old promises
Spoken and unspoken
Still to be kept
The haze dispersed
The divide reduced
To a vision
A touch
An embrace
The shore
Of a coastal town
The sun goes down
‘Fore night comes round
There we
Recline on the shore
To think no more
Settle no score
‘Til you
Wonder what are we
What will we be
What do I see
So I
Give my heart to you
My love is true
Is your love too?
You say
That it’s you and I
Forever, no lie
Together we sigh
Below the sun
Dandelions in fluffy flower
The mountain haze
Renders sky blue
And here are we
In the breezeless warmth
At the end of a day long hike
Hand in hand as always
As if for the first time
Together for all time
Some thought her broken
Even brittle
But all the brittle
Had broken away
In countless storms
What remained
Was hardened
Tenacious
She’d shed many facades
Until what was left
Was what she chose
To keep
She kept nothing
For perfunctory friendships
Or pettiness
Able to withstand any hardship
She chose carefully
What to stand for
And who
Content in gentleness
She suffered no one
Who drove hard upon her shores
If some thought
Walking away made her weak
She walked away
While they washed out to sea
I wake in the mornings
Mind always in a foggy mist
To find, always
Like a whisper in the silence
Rising to become song
You are there
Nothing so rouses
My faded spirit
As your voice of grace
And compassion
Singing love to this soul
That’s lived in silence
Enveloped in the safe harbour of your arms
The pain
The fear
The anguish
Drawn away with the tide
I drift in the ocean of calm that is you
Until peace washes over me
When I lost her
Some small but integral
Part of my being
Broke away
For a while
It floated nearby
Just out of reach
Yet a lingering presence
The current of time
The drift of the everyday
That Island of her
Receded further and further
Until one day
I scanned the horizon
No Island was there
A single tear fell into the sea
The sea was unperturbed
It said to me
You have learned to live without her
That is all
I understood
I had forgiven her
And myself
For our breakup
I’d allowed the blame
To drift away
Which made me
Whole again
The land moves
Waves of soil and asphalt
Break at my feet
Transport me
To a distant beach
And the love I shared there
I imagine the wind
Carries wafts of brine and low-tide
Amid the many scents of you
Across this rolling sea
And a beckoning highway
I reach out for a hand
That cannot be here
Through the gloom
You reach out
To offer light
And energy
Pix to Words 