how long must my heart
buffer before it may
download your data?

how often must i update
my software to seize
increasing speeds?

and how much storage
shall i reserve to
preserve and review?

when will i learn to reset
my settings and so delete
all bits of you?

let me not dwell on things i lost, forgot.
who gains from memories of memories fought?

let us be the frame that grasps the glass--the pane, a path, that love may pass. let us loose the hinge, jibe the clime, and freeze the freeze; else dusk the sun’s bright shine, suspend its fervid climb. and, dear, let us open and close with the day, breathe in what beams may stray. what Life propose, we will enclose, ingest along the way.

you write a lot about love
without wanting to say it
out loud

if love were bingo,
would we still prize the free space
for its convenience?

love is
for the exits:  
to split the atom,
divide the cell,
& break embrace,
so they may
find entry
in another.

so near, the shock will surely be
     thy gift of sharp 'lectricity.

          and--oh--a sight is it to see:
               the life forever charged by thee.

what we found there
was a rectangular
patch of light stretched out
against us like a short
blanket we have
long outgrown.

we watched it strain to
cover our heads and toes,
struggle to offer the protection
we forgot to remember.

and in that moment
we were suffused with great
sorrow, a quiet lament for that
starving light that
failed to feed.

so we brought our toes in—
assumed contorted positions—
offered shady reassurances.

and huddled together
beneath that fragile light—that
infinitely fragile light—we
found one last petal of peace
before it surrendered a yawn
and faded into darkness.

to gaze on thee is burden born,
but not in winter set.

nor yet it’s twin’s return, i fear,
or stares that won’t be met.
                                
it lies in weight of seconds rung,
small gasps in space and time,

when eye is eye, and mine is thine,
when all is intertwined.

that baff’ling fall—so bare—so brief—
that life immersed in life,

is where we lose, and where we’re found:
one nature and one strife.