I remember when I wouldn't hold your hand
To cross the street; How did it feel?
Were you proud that I was growing? Did you smile?
Or was it painful? The withdrawal of intimacy:
Sign that I would soon become a stranger?
Our closeness always was unspoken. Without touching,
How would we share? How exchange those feelings
Keeping us together? The answer was, we didn't.
Finally we shared a roof but little else;
But for random handshakes, nothing would have joined us.
I must say the fault was mine. It took me years and lives
To know the power of touch. Finding you again
I found you newly shy, as if we'd traded places.
Very little time was given me to show you what I'd learned.
As you lay there, breathing only, once again I held your hand.
Did you know that? Did you see?
How did it feel?