the motion of the beloved in the night when the mind deep in its distraction receives a signal that by-passes the sentinels of conscious thought and the internal self turns with a formless artless joy an expectation of reflection an anticipation of reunion before soberer attentions reassert themselves and like a hand drawing back the buoyant child from the edge of the abyss the emotive response is cut short extinguished smothered and only the cool emptiness of regret remains behind an absence where once there was a presence a wound only momentarily disturbed and a hope rises like a flare in the darkness that this might be the last time
September 17, 2015
