Howard Firkin
Is this what separates us? Have I found
the mirror plane and not your finger tips?
If I lean forward will I touch your lips,
and if they move with words, will I hear sound
and feel your breath, or only see it mist?
The lights came on. I thought I saw another—
another room, another person’s mess;
but now you say it’s simple onliness
of husband/wife, man/woman, father/mother,
and onliness is why we’ve never kissed.

If I can’t touch you in the light, we’ll meet
in darkness when we meet within the plane.
However briefly, we can be complete,
until the lights are switched on once again.