Old Jade Pales

worn tablecloth roughens
old jade pales

Go, now,
slip away from me quickly,
embrace this distance

this is mine to cultivate,
this plot of wet turf
planted with trembling notes

It was your expressive silences
that captivated me, the crash
of emptiness that deafens suddenly

that way you have of deliciously nervously sensual stillness

a finger arching

the curve that lengthens

me, waiting
in the dark, for you
(how long have we known one another?)

and I thrill
to this supple music of absence

I have enriched you
with the imagining of lovers and livelihoods

I have amplified
the volume of your empty voice

You have been taken from me,
you have been taken from me

And I am enraptured
by your too-distant music