Then Hold Me Close...

 

Then hold me close and do not ask of me

The words trembling unspoken in my thought

Though fain I try to spell with wanton jot

Its surging void in broken poetry

Then hold me near for I cannot explain

This bitter-sweetest winnowing of love

Far, far and dark the night expands its glove

Until I only feel our mutual pain

Then hold me long and do not let me go

The years that we have weathered are behind

The future is as formless as the wind

And what comes with the light no one can know

Then hold me now within this fragile flight

Of flesh and blood and brief mortality

It is enough to feel you next to me

And touch the trembling silences of night

© Janet Martin