Between Strangers

Stranger, who can measure the distance between us?

Distance is the rumor of a never-before-seen sea.

Distance the width of a layer of dust.

Maybe we need only strike a match

for my world to flicker in your sky,

Visible finally, and eye-to-eye.

Breachable, finally, the border between us.

What if we touched? What then?

Would something in us hum an old familiar song? 

Maybe then our feet would wear a path back and forth

between our lives, like houses in neighboring lots.

Would you give me what I lack? Your winter coat,

Your favorite battered pot? Logic warns: unlikely.

History tells me to guard my distance

When I pass you on the street, and I obey.

But—to stumble into you, or you into me—

Wouldn’t it be sweet? In reality,

I keep to myself. You keep to you. We have nothing

To rue. So why does remorse rise almost to my brim,

And also in you?