THE COMPLETE PRESENCE

The complete presence

of almost nothing

- the person vanished -

stirs its memory, embodies

name, voice, and gesture,

forgets the face.

Unawares, others trust -

only I am

watching this familiar

relatedness turn duplicitous,

the man seeming

equal to no

more of distance

than umbilical measure,

is, will be, has been

uncoupled - finessing

recall from indistinct

imaginings. His silence

breaks the trance

of speech, will

cracks, forcing acts

to hope for

incoherence or movement

toward vital, joyous

enterprise. The car

pulls out, heads

for the horizon's

linear necessity,

scraping past perspective's

diminishment. Clouds flatten 

feeling, the storm

moves in, and an entrance-

way door closed

prematurely.  Skittish

with indifference?  Bowed?

The beyond boomerangs,

and the here

comes back to

returns life from

what he had

thought to put

behind.  Others.  Estrangement.