The Miracle of Closeness

You were a young boy of 24
Quietly distressed, therefore all the more
Reason to be easily loved, if not wanted
There was something in your eyes, so tired and haunted
That spoke to me like none til then
Pleading, almost, to be let in
From the cold that now runs in vein
And threatening, if you were hurt again
To exact revenge on this, this life so pale
That to live it promises only betrayal

I was a boy of limited means
With grand ambitions and even grander dreams
Who could never for the life of me
Settle on whom I wanted to be
Thrilled in indecision
Obsessed with complication
To breathe was a labor, to think an obligation
Resulting in a constant state of frustration
While loneliness kept at my gate each night
And I feared to see the glare of the early morning light

Wounded we walked the windy streets in mutual despair
Occasionally exhaling our thoughts into the air
The world for us held a sense of wonder
And a kind of beauty we found in one another
Suddenly, “you’re alive!”, it seems for the first time
As if a switch has been turned on in your mind
All the possibilities creep out from the corners
All our hopes crystal clear, crystal fine
Two broken fragments, somehow made whole?
Here it is, changing everything you’ve been told

You were a beautiful boy of 24
Unaware and unwary of what life had in store
Chasing the moon, you said stars were dead.
Always meaning to stay but end up leaving instead
I was a boy of substantial affection
Making all the right turns, but in the wrong direction
Pulling away and pushing too far
Finding the worst in the best intentions
It fit so easy yet fell apart just so
Here it is, confirming everything you’ve been told

Impatiently

Impatiently, he waits
For Life to begin
But then,
What is all this around him?
Life is, not in the pauses,
Active, kinetic, always
Until it is no longer.
To wait to live is simply
To wait to die