Neither held nor lost

Somewhere In The World

Somewhere in the world we
share opposite ends of the sky.
There was the leaving you and
before that, the finding. How these
things come about, I cannot say.

How many the times you thought
of me, or I of you, and neither ever
knew it. There is a singular tragedy
in this, holding and losing a beauty
that can neither be held nor lost.

So I take water, sip the common
things that make us alike as if hovering
before the swollen pistil of a flower:
snow, pollen, dust, the grieving stars.



Somewhere in the world you
are looking out a window. If it
is night, you are staring back at
yourself. If morning, the rising
blinds you enough to cause you
to believe you might have seen
something that reminds you of me.

It may be the missing part in a fence
line, or the withered tree among a
colted stand of saplings driving the
sun deeper into their willing roots.
Whatever is or isn’t, we share
opposite ends of a same sky.

It is enough.

Joseph Gallo
November 4, 2007