love

Spiralling out from the mind

hope, a rope to coil

around unsuspecting habits and you —

your words, stars that burst and I

move toward sound, bending like a leaf towards the sun,

remember songs sung at night,

hands on the speckled red laminate of childhood,

the crickets outside — ghosts that call cats

into the night-light playground of dreams;

sometimes the two of us share thoughts

before separate incidents from the past

divide what was momentarily joined.

When hands touch, fingerprints collide

so quietly no one notices the change

until at some later date, looking back,

realization dawns as a smile or a nod
and what has become just is.