I had a moment today
where I felt I did not know you at all

that you were a stranger to me
that if you fell from my life

and decomposed like the still
vernal leaves will soon decompose

I would remain a whole person
unwounded.

Then I came out of that, noticing
the thousands of fractals of sun

shine woven on your chest
and thought about how remarkable it is

that you can sit across from someone you love
and feel only indifference

that you can yearn to be somewhere else
and that just as suddenly

you can be outside of that indifference
inside of each other again, prying each other

open and bringing each other to the edge
of what it means to be human

to love and forget and die
and how this opening

is a beautiful kind of singing
that is very difficult for me to hear.

You are talking melodiously again
your eyes that lambent labyrinth

of green and red and brown and blue
and my heart hums,

it hums.