for S.

“Eros manifests the intimacy of being in a primordial “being with” (synousia): to be at all is “to be with.” IU 422

Hum of the cafe

where I spend my afternoons,

lost in this or that

book. Sometimes you leave

the back and sit down next to

me, our shoulders touch—

it lasts a minute.

You whisper something sad or

funny. It lasts and

lasts. The look in your

eyes sees through my loneliness

like desert starlight.

Desire, improvident,

faithful! The distance between

us fills, empties, fills.