By Ali
Date: 2008 Aug 05
Comment on this Work
[[2008.08.05.20.11.29079]]

silence

There's a silence
in my head, among the many words
I've said and swallowed, trying
and fighting the best way I know how
(for me?  for you?  for us?)--
but is it enough?

Tonight, I can't dig it out,
and I can't separate
the hope from the ache, the what-if wonder
that you are, in a quiet panic
that plays your eyes
like lightening in the night:
it has settled into the space
where your words stopped,
where your smile stayed,
when you averted your eyes
because you didn't know what to say.

Today, I couldn't breathe.  I still can't.
It wasn't easy.  Seeing you,
etching the truth in hard lines,
as if it were simple, as if telling you
how I felt was like talking about the weather--
but I was all thunder
without the storm.

And so, we are at an impasse,
because I told you
that I care, but I can't feel things
halfway, and I can't get close
if I'm just going to lose you--
and I suppose that the rest
is silence.