Live

The whiz of cars going by
The hum of distant trucks
lumbering down the highway
The squeal of a car braking
in front of a red light,
Both of us are at an intersection tonight.

The night has been dark for quite a while.
You look at me with eyes full of tears,
and I wonder if you could cry for years.
All I want is to see you smile.

A sound shrieks into the midnight all around us,
the sound of a burglary that both the police
and we ignore.
But there's more: I smell your hair
and listen to you breathe.
Just being this close to you makes me feel
like I have been dead all along.
I look at you and wonder if you understand.

I feel like now as I am sitting so close to you
I am finally alive. I am at the edge of everything.
Everything my heart could ever desire,
everything my soul could burn like fire.
I step one last time, away from everything
I have ever known,
into a world I would one day call home:
Soft words reach out to you:
"May I hold your hand?"

9.10.1997