(for j.w.3)
You handed my voice back to me the night I realized I wasn’t alone in this journey to self knowledge
On which there can and will be snares and tears
And I think you may just be as afraid as I am

I see you through the darkness of my room
I lay in my bed, my head nappy and loose
My chest free and my spirit opened wide for you

I say to you that I enjoy the peace of your spirit
I enjoy allowing it to lead me where it does
Calmly laying its hands wherever it pleases

I enjoy the lightness of the moments I share and the cool breath I feel on my skin when I listen for your voice
Always with a soothing beat
Drumming softly in my ears
And me always searching the database in my brain for more than one way to connect to you

I say to you loosely ‘eclectic’ and a dam falls out of place
Water begins rushing towards me
I have released a flood and ‘sorry’ and ‘I didn’t mean’ step up and assume position as I will the sky to remain cerulean
Not yellow
Or red like the night we met when words came easy and fear was as far as a country called cuba

Distance is a very real thing
Though intangible it has the potential to kill things that have been given life

Ahh but the sight of ink sunken into trees that know the direction of the wind
The images created by the mind in absence are stronger
They hold a depth that may be overlooked
Glossed over like photo paper, developed and made to seem unreal

But so far as real is the magic of belief in the unknown
I shall hold onto the unrealistic dreams that make their way into our minds
Periodically tabling our hopes into this galaxy we call home
Each idea holding its place as a star in the vast deep blue
Up above our heads someone is dancing a freedom step
Letting go of the rules that lock us out from possibility

Step, bounce, step, lift
Head up, arms out
Eyes on me

No matter how new each day may seem
I will be the bark of the trees
The stones beneath your feet
The clouds above head, puffing up your ego
Rain that falls, giving breath to life not yet born
The song that comes in the nighttime and brings you peace
I will be the sun shining beneath your eyelids when you slumber
And like a recurring pain in your knee, I long to plague you with the goodness of memories

A muscle flexed among arms intertwined
Soft lips brushing soft lips brushing soft lips brushing skin to skin
Rubbing and sweating
A heartbeat
Eyes locked over two glasses of honey-filled goblets
And an apology for time wasted or not well-spent

Embraced against the pattern of Brooklyn streets
Tree and garbage lined
Rock solid footing
Face to face with your reality though unrealistic she may be

She is
As real as you are willing to make her
Make her your reality and she will fall
Bare and barely there

But hold me
Hold me in synapses of your mind
And let us reconnect and create memory over and under and throughout this so real distance so as to mold unrealistic dreams into breathing, moving reality