On Meeting and Parting Not So Long Ago
by Stephanie Mesler
Not so long ago, you were a thousand miles off.
I felt you in the night, heard your voice as if in dreams.
The tendrils of your breath reached across miles and warmed me in my dark.
Not so long ago, shyness prevented me from taking you all the way in.
I stole glances of you, feigning interest in objects behind and beside.
When finally I looked directly into your eyes, reserve dissolved
and all I knew I knew of you was enough.
Not so long ago, you laughed when I kissed your bottom rib.
There was nothing at all manly about the ticklish giggle you tried hard to retrieve
but once I knew your secret place, there was to be no un-knowing
Not so long ago, dawn crept around drawn hotel room blinds.
The clatter of uneven housekeeper’s cart wheels caused you to stir.
I pulled you closer, stroked your arm, whispered you back to sleep.
Not so long ago, my face nestled against your fur,
I fought to keep tears from splashing over your belly,
They came, unstoppable, bathing your body, wetting the sheet beneath us.
Your tears mixed with my own, assuring me it was ok to come apart before goodbye.
Not so long ago, you kissed my palm,
It was all you could safely reach while riding the clutch in heavy tourist traffic.
I looked straight ahead, wondering how I could possibly return to the life that did not include you.
Not so long ago, I left you standing at the station.
Through tinted window glass, you could not know how I trembled.
You could not see a stranger hand me a tissue to wipe tears I could not even try to hide.
Not so long ago, alone again in my dark, I reached for you.
Your laughter echoed in my mind and your embrace took me home.
In your arms, a thousand miles fell away, and I breathed you in.
On Meeting and Parting Not So Long Ago is copyright 2011 Stephanie Mesler and is included in the poetry collection, Love Lines.
