I look across as sunshine
lights your face
already beautiful
I am drawn to who you are
drawn to your smile
I am enveloped by your words

something in your eyes
registers
connects
suggests
a possibility

and yet, yet
you are unreachable
a memory
where love is left
to find its own course
waiting patiently in the words

of a poem
on a page
in a book
that you will open
after we have said goodbye

[2023]