courageously counting the seconds
for both of us
an incarnation
of the First Noble Truth
love opening hearts to joy
opens them also to pain
the unloved never experience
for which they are not to be envied
for us each increase
in our security together
is a heightened risk
sometimes almost to the verge
of excruciation
the check to the breath
I remember on the sheer cliff
fingers and cheek on a cleft
as
r
summoned the courage to drop
back to the narrow ledge below me
or failing that to the bottom
with its four white crosses in a row
the world seeming at an end
I had never before felt
so concentratedly alive
as now unable to imagine
living without you
