February 10, 2006— Why I am Silent

I love you most when you cannot hear me-

when I am separated from you

by that chasm of speech

over which

it somehow seems both impossible and unnecessary

to build a bridge.

I love you fully, freely, finding

within myself the capacity to love you

without the seeming need to desperately,

compulsively confirm the truth of it to myself, merely to feel

as though I have some proof that

I am, and you are.

I love you strongly, fierce as I

Hold you silent in my arms, softly shaping myself to you. And yet—

when you roughly grab my face to kiss me, hard-

heated—

my love for you is hushed-

Translucent and exquisite as the brush

of a petal against your cheek,

Flushed

And beautiful beside mine.