orris√

It's not that we should never meet again,
but too much of your presence overwhelms
the other portions of my life. So let
me have your absence fill the measure of
the space between us. And years shall form
the hyperplane that marks our separation.
So much of love and hate is fed by sight;
then do not see me often, and remain
my friend. Not friend. Not stranger. Just enough
between the days, crawling like two wounded
insects half-crushed by a footfall,
as we descend the gradient of our brief
and darkened days. Then even pain becomes
nostalgia, farewells become apologies.
I pray my careful steps away from you
will find in time enough
that saddlepoint between your being here,
and being far away.