from Letters to a Distant Friend

      1

      Nothing seems to get any better

      I have given up waiting for more

      Once we had youth on our side

      full of promise

      Now we are what we are

      and struggle with one aging mind

      to climb the wall

      we no longer believe is there

      2

      For months we live a day’s trip apart

      absorbed in writing flowers for the void

      What are they to us

      but orphaned children

      What are these days that won’t come again

      but moments we labor

      to preserve our loneliness

      5

      Another winter morning

      I’m expecting your call

      I stand close to the window and watch

      my breath form a rose on the glass

      I scratch your name on it

      then wipe it away with my sleeve

      listening for your tires

      to crunch through the ice on the drive

      I notice how snow glistens on the pine boughs

      that there’s no wind at all

      It’s too cold for my walk

      Nothing dares disturb this stillness

      I know you aren’t coming

      I press my cheek to the window

      The telephone rings

      My breath forms a rose on the glass

      9

      Happiness is only one condition

      Fools search for it

      If you can’t love ashes

      what is the sense of burning wood

      Too much wine is a pleasure and a pain

      If we were together too long

      we would fight

      A little sadness like salt

      enhances the flavor

      11

      I have been sick and have lost my voice

      We haven’t talked for weeks

      Tonight you called

      and for the first time spoken

      you said “I love you”

      After all these years these words between friends

      I