Hollow out my mind like soft earth
after a season of rain,
and bring forward the dancing moon in reticence.

And let the steps beneath charred forest left behind,
bring fortitude in thought.
To help love what is and release what is not.

I saw you in all things soft and beautiful,
For your eyes were my eyes,
And my hands, yours.

Blurred images on the surface of a stream,
Laughing children, flapping sails,
hillsides of moss and vines and huts of stone.

Drifting hopes became my castle,
Kept warm by my sanguine queen.

In a different life,
the cold, coarse granite that separates us
Is nothing but atoms,

There, things are different.
The blade is used only in the kitchen,
And our hearts remain intact.

There, we are brave,
Our greatest fears tested and overcome long ago.
There as it always was, your smile is my smile, and my strength is yours.