Far From Me

by Gerard Jac

 
In quiet each gray dawn slowly unfurls,
Majestic, ambidextrous. How like you --
Familiar alm, so suddenly sun-streaked:
Announcement like an exile overthrown,
A spurt of birds from branches. Yes, I know:
Intoxication is a poor way to love.
Yet round you, star-like, flickering, I so turn:
Your dazzled moth, autumnal with withinness.

Outside, the world of data bytes and steel
Crackles and executes its hiss of shadows;
Day's urgent ciphers traffic script and chat;
Artistry's roseate mandalas beckon.
And where you are not of it? There is nothing.

Yet you are not far from me. I call out,
Unknowing where to turn, and you are there,
Dear in grace and presence,
Puzzled as I am at my baffled love.
Quite unaware that in
Your hand the slender rose of heaven opens.