Too often I see
With restless hands and furrowed brow
Nothing but the hazy remnants of your reflection
As though time herself
Plots with careless abandon
To share nothing of its eternity

A window, a doorway
Around the corner of another featureless building
You were there
Or so it seems
In those fleeting moments between distractions

If only I knew your face
Like I know you
In my sleep, and my heart
Perhaps
I might know how to look

Yet your mind resonates, your being, your soul
In thrumming harmony
With that song, not quite remembered
From my childhood
As though I could find you there
In a past torn away by a millennia of faded memory

Are you angel?  Demon?  Avatar?
The Hand of God?
Take mine in yours!
Or my heart, in your hand
For what use is it
When breath cracks my ribs
And ice fills my eyes?

Might you wait?
While I, with hastened steps and leaden tongue
Will myself, this shell, to the next corner
The next shadow
The next empty space where you aren’t
And still I hope
For yet another thousand winters