I approach thee
in thy round heaven
brown, incarnate —
your glow soft, flickering
as my eyes close to forget

you are near
always and ever
hiding
in darkness, in view only
when sleep comes to rescue me

as a lingering
taste on my back palate
as a lingering
shadow in the descendant fog —
shape, empty, embodied

it has been years,
why have we not grown apart?
I longed
for union and division,
and found them embraided

to turn to you
to turn to you, as ever
it could come to be,
to not refuse, to embrace
that soft flicker and not drown

I approach thee
always and ever
as a lingering
of union and division,
a soft flicker undrowned