Always pictured as a dark forest in ever after land,
a hollow space opening up to a cavernous clearing,
echoing from time to time, inside my chest, some spirit
roaming the interior of a suddenly emptied heart,
that cliché ache, we know its meaning,
use the word over and over because it describes that state perfectly,
your face always just fifteen feet away across a bridge
of time that swings open, not with words, but small smiles,
the way you look at me, I look at you, casually, and look at you, and look, and look,
and we are all silence in those stares of wonder and possibility sparkle,
imagining you now, sipping coffee in Memorial Union,
old like me and gray, because you would never dye your hair,
or working at the Wild Cherry shop still selling women’s wear,
how you come and help me, some surprise, no casual customer,
assisting me, but we both know that we have often shared
more before in silent words breaking before our lips
on soft tongues of quietly unwhispered dreams
about what might be, much more maybe than any love
can bear me so away over all these miles and time so far away,
I think I see it all now, it’s clear what we held in our hearts,
the mystery thankfully momentarily is always solved for me,
the hole filled in, the ache subsides, and once upon a time
I am again alone with you held always whole and deep.
Lanning Lee 