The distance between
the love we had and now
makes the universe appear
so very small

an ocean of nothingness
grips me in this lightness
resounding of you
as you run with Jupiter to the royal

colors of the moon
(before) we were a youthquake of
discovery in eloquent dreams –

As for my own
effortless fling to
failure I have
succeeded you on so many counts

when I saw you
like an abeyance
following me
Labyrinthian, an immersion

of you, and I as mere
solivagant, alone and
emptied
By the shell of warmth

in our byzantine
summer turned gilded
By the winds of Autumn –
cautious animation

Pierced by each
leafless tree as they
sing to me in Winter’s key,
each note drenching me in memory,

memories of a place
we used to walk
tethered by common time –

As if awash in that summer’s sun
rendered glazed in open fields,
I grasp for your heart
like trying to catch

one’s own shadow, reaching out,
seeing what is possible
but never feeling fully –
fallen and incomplete.

© K. James Ribble