Goodbye for now: a summer as quick as a gasping breath,

You were the most familiar stranger I searched for in a crowd,

Silently begged to hear your voice and in luck—a laugh,

Self denial confirmed initial, solitary comfort wrapped in fear,

Beneath the roof of the same old house on a Tuesday evening,

A rumbling car engine and the bass of a distant song,

Echo through the quiet neighborhood—you are just

What I needed to get me through a life unlived,

Months ahead of us; time cushioning partnership

As a herd of clouds above a calm sky following the storm,

Break the silence with a battle of indecision, a kiss

that started it all in a matter of delicate minutes;

You are growth, You are risk, You are love.

Convert the miles in distance to the numbers of breaths

I’ll take while away from you and measure them in

Music. How many songs will be sung before I am

Returned to your arms? Right back where we started,

Our dizzy heads below ever changing and dying trees.

Until then—my troubles are racing against the clock

And I’ll think of you in the midst of the music.