But once and only once, here I have you.

You counter with your pen strokes and caress

My fearful mind; its depths you wade into.

I then return the volley with a kiss

And make you pause. Please listen. Here and Now

Are all we have of this love: entropy.

Its form and color, music, depth, and how…

This way, this certain way you look at me.

This touch of fingers, this kiss, this silence

The space between our cold breaths and the shadow

On this sidewalk at this temporal stance

Will makes us look unnaturally shallow…

All this postponement, whispered frequencies…

Will never come again. Quiescency.

“Reality,” I choke. “But, dreams!” you sing.

Nothing is all-unchanging. This I know

From years of change whose marks upon my skin

Will never fade, but deepen. So you slow

My busy mind, hand me my pen, time’s stilled…

And urging me to write, you take my hand-

(My other hand) and touch the paper, filled

With all my fears, love I can’t understand.

One look is all it takes to know your mind.

Suspension…eyes bare souls entirely.

You give me your words, too, as if I’d find

This gift were all – were pure finality.

The bitter bliss of temporality…

That you declare will last eternally.