“Social Distancing”

              (We’ve been practicing it for years)

Masters of an art, 10,000 hours borne

That we never knew existed

Through time and space, a memory

Of youthful laughs and carefree smiles

(Did it ever happen, love, or was perhaps a dream?)

Did Love dance there, the impish muse that knew

No burden of the adult life, no boundaries..

Yet Time goes on

Love blossoms strong in one’s own breast

While childhood fantasy locks the other down…

Did you not see

the earnest eyes

so bright and true,

that oceans you did fill

Your ignorance of nearby bliss

Her tears unseen….

Youth’s folly kept ethereal miles, between and betwixt

Two hearts,

One firm, one false.

Yet still Love lingered, waiting, wondering.

As seeming Tragedy did come

trajectories did arc in space and

nearness came the norm,

Yet social norms, and published vows.

Like Jericho’s Walls did keep apart

And distant from the thoughts.

The sweet ambrosia, milk and honey

No horn of Joshua to be played, as one did finger its forbidden touch,

Yet other did its crypt declare, and lay it down in fortress deep,

The social norms and adult pride a lock

That no mere mortal keys

Yet Love did linger, older now

Its noble visage so engraved across

The heart of one, whose folly ceased, now

Began to see with eyes made fresh,

Through years of hope past scorned.

Alas! The now strong beating of a heart

so near, so close, to what it favors most,

Has found its Juliet lies cold and wasted

buried ‘neath the weight

Of parenthood, duty, honor, life…

He had no chance to say goodbye, his gaze

in past on miles distant, while true

she lay dying in his sight.

 

But as he grew, she so slowly slipped away, the heart grows cold

when fertile fields made barren, laid to waste.

But,

Is it Hades dark, or merely Morpheus that lingers near,

To dull and ease the burdens of the heart, that Love once awakened far away?

 

Love lingers near

no longer gamboling in flowery fields and sun-drenched skies

but walking quietly through the stacks,

Fidelity, honor, respect of self,

All armor forged more cold and grey

Then any iron made by smith,

He feels the steady beat, then surge

then look to die as source so near,

so coldly slices through his feeble arms

lifted up in hope yet shattered to the ground.

But each time, the fading light close to expire is wakened to a look, a sigh, a smile,

And Hope, Love’s eternal companion, does hint at distance closing,

The spark enough to spur the fire’s yearning

The memory of a conflagration, bond (Oh! Were it but a dream!)

 

Then hard and fast the final gate comes down

Deployed by one, ignored by he, yet manacled to its iron grid by her command,

By her demand.

She hides behind it now, its visage lovely, fresh and clean,

She sees a home, who sleeps in Morpheus’ grip and lives the dream,

While he a prison, cold and bare,

And cast upon the mantle of the gate,

 

Ne’er to be removed, its harsh letters a beacon to the world.

Boundaries!  The final gulf,

The abyss that cannot be crossed,

The mountain not to be climbed

The ocean never to be swum

It throws its shadow cross the land,

And distance more created ‘tween two souls.

It lays waste to guilt, to despair, to fear, and lifts one’s soul to respectability

Preeminence in this world,

While joy, happiness, passion, fun

Are left to find their way through perils dear, and monstrous thorns.

Yet even in the cold, safe net of Boundaries’ realm,

Walks softly Love, with Hope forever at Love’s side,

The tread is slow, the hair is gray, and soon to enter in the twilight of this time,

Yet eyes still glow with joy and affection

happiness and passion

comfort and peace.

It holds his heart near to its embrace, ready ever to bring it close to its desire

The beating faintly, yet still firm, saddened by lost years yet never bitter

for in Love’s embrace

It is patient, kind, and does not grow cold or angry,

But merely accepts,

And loves from afar.

He is older now, and through the distance,

barriers,

walls,

abyss,

years,

time…

He understands.  Finally

And Love smiles and holds him dear.

 

The distance that abounds, is of our own desire,

Two flames united, can a city burn,

Upend a home,

Destroy a future,

Expand exponentially into

A flame so blazing fierce in its glory,

That none can but look at it in awe.

As it sucks the oxygen from the sphere,

Devastating all around…and leaving only ashes, cold and grey

This distance, social distance

means the future conflagration never shall have its birth.

It is good.

And yet, he weeps.