This Distance Between Us

This Distance Between Us
by Michael R. Burch

 
This distance between us,
this vast gulf of remembrance
void of understanding,
sets us apart.
 

You are so far,
lost child,
weeping for consolation,
so dear to my heart.
 

Once near to my heart,
though seldom to touch,
now you are foreign,
now you grow faint . . .
 

like the wayward light of a vagabond star:
obscure, enigmatic.
Is the reveling gypsy
becoming a saint?
 

Now loneliness,
a broad expanse
--barren, forbidding--
whispers my name.
 

I, too, am a traveler
down this dark path,
unsure of the footing,
cursing the rain.
 

I, too, have felt pain,
pain and the ache of passion unfulfilled,
remorse, grief, and all the terrors
of the night.
 

And how very black
and how bleak my despair . . .
O, where are you, where are you
shining tonight?