there's a thing i've felt all my life
i say thing, but that isn't right
it's too solid, maybe i should say feeling
but, then, that's too active
i'm more sure that it is no thing, a nothing
but even that clever word game only dances around it
ripples meeting resistance, a vague implication of an outline of a thing with no shape
a comedian put it to words, funny enough
"the slightest distance." he said
the slightest distance between any two people
the words were a gift from his father
who by all accounts was more distant by far
but he gave the words in a rare moment of contact
direct contact, warm and soft
"you're older now, and that distance, the slightest distance,
is part of that"
i imagine that's how it went
the comedian didn't give the words to me,
he merely let them loose to drift over the open air
a great distance
i hope someone else caught those drifting words
someone who felt it, someone who could see
the non-thing's non-shape
i hope one day i can touch their hand
and cut through the ripples keeping us
from shore
~
