Swept and Gone

How many days
How many nights
Have passed, lover
Since last I held you?

In time
We both stop counting.
Passing days
Fade
Into a dull ache
A spinning
In the back of our skulls.

We know what it is
But we never say.
It must never come
From our lips.
We swallow it back
Bitter in our throats
But we know what it is.

Beyond the horizon
Your feet pad soft in the grass.
You water your azaleas
And watch a monarch butterfly
Dance on the morning air.

You are not far away
Though you live
In the dark of the moon
Between the rings of Saturn.

It saddens me
I will never see you again.
My shadow weeps in the knowledge
It will nevermore twine with yours.

I can't know what you think
Of me
Though memories of you
Swirl like puffs of milkweed
Along the rails of the Burlington.

They are swept and gone
In the rattle and hum
Of the passing beast
And setting sun.

Swept and gone.