Charles Kick

The Lovers’ Hands

Today, like all others, I began without you

Still that chore of gratitude, which grants

Survival never means lived to its fullest

Sweetness mixed with bitterness, this forbidden wine

Drunk and gratitude for a life

One I’ve never chosen

Only choosing what the best be done

I’m given long enough without you to

Determine who I am before distracted by

All your good enticing and encouragement

Leaves me so dependent on your heart

While all the leaves and earth beneath my feet

Leave me so dependent on the ground

Gravity and yours will sling me

Far in Outer space so distant from reality

If all I ever wanted was your hand in mine

I’d never hold another for the rest of time

In darkness and cold, I lose the density

Once given to me freely by your gravity

And earth will for a moment be so good to me

Instead, it leaves me anxious with you gone

Instead, I become anxious with you here

I’m trapped between two worlds for all eternity

Your hand wrapped close in mine so clandestinely