The Touch of the touched

You

Standing

There

So close

Enough to

Reach

and Touch

and touch

and touch

Fingers sprinting through space

Skin within our skin

Yearning to break

To reach

to Touch

to touch

to touch

that place between

that place within

that way we've been

touched.

No.

I can't

I shouldn't

Couldn't

Must not

Cross

The space

The air

The skin

No reach

no Touch

no touch

no touch

But I yearn

I long

I am so thirsty

To feel the touch of another human being

To feel the skin

To know where you are

To reach beyond

to touch beyond

to touch the beyond

Restraint

I will restrain myself

I will contain myself

I will slowly slay myself

With rope and rule and rhymes

I will not reach

I should not reach

Enclose the space

Enclose your throat

Touch your lungs

One must go

You or I

One must stay

So this is the way

I relinquish this hold

I let you slip away

The space growing

The yearning glowing

But restraint

Always restraint

Be free as a bird

Go where you may

I shall not cage you

With my affection

My need to reach

To touch your hand

I will contain

I will restrain

and bare the pain

In lonely nights

When winds cut my soul

I wished you where there

As if you could make me whole

When no blanket could cover

The bareness of my pain

When no shroud could hide

The anguish of my name

But no friend showed

No matter how hard I prayed

Only fiends glowed

In the nightime's shade

Then I most yearned

To reach for your hand

To pull myself up with

So that once more I could stand

But I coudn't and can't and never will

Grasp at your hand as I would

For fear that once more

As I reach for some strength

That hand is withdrawn

And I am left here alone

Touched by the might

of the single

the lone

the touch

of the touched.