16 Sept 2011

This solitude


Between my casual passing through your mind and
your persistence in my wakeful sleeping conscious     
a rose opens
a moonless night vanishes into twilight
a bee trapped behind the garden glass door 
fails to grasp why it cannot reach its flower

There is in this solitude a stability no union offers
there’s an honesty in this loneliness
an unspoken promise
a warmth that enters me gently like the seeping
heat of my morning coffee

I find your scent between my scattered papers
your raining sadness between my breasts

I see your sorrowful eyes in our encounters,
unhooking their blazing gaze from mine

I am in your parting a woman
learning how to forgive herself for your cruelty

My hands test the dampness of my plants’ soil
and I remember not to water your memory.