Mon Ami

Once or twice 

you have let your voice go soft

and spoken to me with 

heartbreaking gentleness 

difficult to bear because 

I am not used to 

seeing the walls come down.

Even in the home 

the nest of intimacy 

I am accustomed to living

armored against a rain of arrows

I am doing my best

to be good

to do the needed work

through a lifetime of load-bearing.

I do not need 

you to be kind

I do not need anything.

It is enough to know

that fifty miles away

your heart is beating 

and your lips part

to speak or to smile or to sigh.

The space that you fill

mon ami, is enough 

you are the rain that falls for me

in the garden 

that brings the flowering.