Two Takes on a Flickering Moth

 

Take 1. The Love Letter to an Unspoken Name

 

Well we're beyond our appointed

Moment now. We must step

On what's left, alone, but

That begs some explanation to

These days that pinball between

Stars and to the sad dreamers everywhere—

 

That we were not kind enough

To ourselves, that our deeds

Contained no exits to each

Other's arms again, and forever. You

May say this is not something

Hateful, but just ordinary life, still

 

I wish to err on

The side of the impossible thing called love.

Looked into your eyes when

First we met and the

Contract signed there by my

Own free soul was made. I was not

 

Coerced. I was not bewitched.

Simply, I was glad to

Be alive because that's where

You were to be found.

The voyage out was all your

Lack of courage, while I

 

Drowned on those many waves. We

Must stand in line with

A bunch of familiar strangers now

For the final count of

Our capacity to care until

Love buries itself, and the universe,

 

And its molten embrace implodes. I will

Not fail to carry your

Name forward. You can know this

That it was true then

And so remains my heart's ultimate

Purpose, to always pronounce that flame on high or even low planes.

Take 2. The Talk With the Moon

Some part of me knew

I was melting at your

feet. I didn't mind one

bit. The hardest part was

watching you walk away into

the reflection of my fading rippling apart

heart. All these years later

I still miss your unabashed song,

the way it coughed up

your words in the sweetest

possible way. I can't help

but leave you this poem

now while I'm still around

to give it true meaning and

I do. I don't regret

any moment spent in your

presence, that's the remarkable thing,

the really beautiful thing, that I'll always

cherish. I can't wish any

more for you than you've

hoped for yourself already. I

trust you to pursue your

dreams and isn't that quite enough?

I don't believe in goodbyes,

so hello, I see you now as then.