Beloved

You walk with me through the night though you are not there.
Your voice follows me down these streets shrouded with bright lamplight.
I imagine your eyes in reflections on car windows and storefronts, your eyes
lovelier than any night, looking on me with kindness....
                                                                                                      Silence:
my heart paces in an empty courtyard, sequestered from the lamps
and noisy hurryings of this nightbound street. Back and forth,
back and forth, my heart paces in the silence, keeping vigil.

Dreams. Above the clouds, the moon reddens in eclipse,
or so they say. No one looks up. On the sidewalk,
by the gate to the museum, elegant jackets
wave at each other, while cigarettes
scintillate like fireflies around them.
In the park, a couple on an iron bench
reads the future in the stirrings of the shadows of leaves. Dreams, silence.

Beloved, I live in a room in the sky, a room with four windows.
I climb down at night to follow your name through these streets.
With every pause in the traffic I hear the echo of my whispers
as I call for you. You?re everywhere, though you?re far away,
concealed in your silences. Your name is a candle
in this electric night, warm, rhythmic, delicately balanced. The moon
is just now brightening above the clouds,
or so they say. Beloved, I wait for you.