Perhaps Then We Can Touch

Upon that day, I knew who you were;

The look in your eyes, the beating of my heart -

It was all too apparent that you were the mate of my soul.

And yet, I did not know it;

We realize what we had, often, only after we have lost it.

I neglected the beating in my heart and that look in your eyes;

What a fool I was, to think either of us was granted tomorrow!

And then, after playing the fool,

I was awakened to the stark reality of who you were, the mate of my soul.

The car, the crash, the blood, the thirty hours of fighting in the hospital to live -

All of it awakened the beating of my heart and drove me violently out of my foolishness.

You are the one who was the mate of my soul,

And I was a fool to wait to act upon it.

Now you are gone.

I see you, daily;

I hear you, moment by moment.

You consume me -

My eyes see your phantasm walking through the room; they see your eyes, that look in your eyes that I am ashamed to myself for not acting upon.

My ears hear your voice calling to me from the room which we ought to have entered together, but never did;

I heart your voice sounding with a saddened love and a desperate longing.

And though my eyes see you, and my ears hear you,

My hands have not touched you -

And your hands have not touched me.

And I know by the look in your eyes, the sound of your voice, that my touch is what you want - the lack of which is the cause of your saddened love.

Day in and day out,

Night after night,

I see you constantly - yet always out of touch.

Maybe I ought to join you, perhaps then we can touch.

- Mr. DH