touched where it both
pained and pleasured

she, he, they,
son, daughter, husband, lover
returned the same,
in kind

there was no irony
that it was the same place

irony was in the kind

it was of no import
that the touching
was not physical

it was different though
in the how, in the what,
that is what made the difference,
the why was why
it sometime
pleasured and sometime pained

in the meeting place of the eyes,
revelation - then always results,
in the meeting place of the eyes,
contact most fierce,
yet no contact at all

the seismic radius of the tremors
were comprehended,
even measured,
but incomprehensibly
awesome and awful

this is how we love,
this is how we hurt,
our nearest ones,
so oft so far away

absent forever
or next door
in the same safe bed,
under a roof close to collapse,
sensible insensitive *

[this is senses insane shining mad]

this is how we love,
this is how we hurt,
our nearest ones,
so oft so far away

with a glance, a sneer, a moan, a snarl,
weeping, even when not openly,
a smile, a caress, a passing kiss,
a hard embrace,
emanations all from
the same place

in the one and the same place
where pain and pleasure coexist

who among us does not
know well this place

the place where reason absents itself,

at roll call the answer is always

Present

and that is the signal
to that place
to commence the uncontrollable
weeping