The Distances

   for Joy

    by Stephen Bunch

The distances between us measure out in blood

and memory, in the effortless entering and leaving,

as if by osmosis, of each other’s dreams,

sometimes to tell the story next morning

as daylight presses the breakfast table,

sometimes to forget, confused over coffee,

those details still too close for comfort.

We part and return in the diurnal dance,

lean into the sun, then away,

sometimes feeling the heat, then the cooling,

attentive to the tensions

of the molecules that make us up.

In dark rooms your hand grasps mine

and I’m calm for a moment knowing the stars

will never be this close again.

© 2010 Stephen Bunch

Stephen Bunch’s work has appeared recently in Umbrella and The Literary Bohemian. From 1978 to 1988, he published Tellus, a magazine featuring work by Jack Anderson, Jane Hirshfield, Denise Low, Paul Metcalf, Edward Sanders, and others. He received the 2008 Langston Hughes Award for Poetry from the Lawrence Arts Center.  His chapbook, Cricket in My Shoe, is scheduled for publication by The Lives You Touch Publications in 2010.