Another Place

Another place There is another place, where all things are possible, All words may be said, all thoughts brought into the limelight. A place where emotion is welcomed and judgment takes no sides. It is a place where you and I, who until now were but strangers, Meet and become as intimate as lovers or long married friends; Although we are intimate, there is a space between us; This space, here, enclosed by a sweep of the hand, that Encompasses us both, but keeps us apart. It is your space, To walk your past, present and future, as an explorer searches The landscape for sustenance and riches, and sometimes reason. Here, in your space, I am lover, father, mother, sister, brother, Daughter, son, vixen friend and foxy foe, to be loved and reviled, Hated, and feared, adored, respected, dismissed and accepted. I am the stranger who haunts your past, the face in the crowd, The gagging smell, the shuffling footsteps or squeaking door. In this place, in this intimate space, you may weep to wash clean Memories long hidden beneath the prim tidiness of your mind. You may laugh and laugh at the irony of your situation, Or shout and scream at me, the mirror to yourself, the Tour guide to the truths in your fears and fantasies. Yet I may not be touched, nor your thoughts enacted except In word and speculation, as though I am a phantom actor. Always, I will remain apart from you, no more than a façade, Mystery behind, unrevealed, another life, yet human still With kind gesture, a smile, scarlet blush or furtive tear. Here you are safe, cradled in the boundaries that both bind us, And make us free. Safe from the world of distant memory that Haunts you, when fear crept into your bed by night and the search For love and soothing filled your day. A place where formless Loss is given shape and substance, finally to be laid to rest. And I? I am the watcher, alert to the half spoken thought. I am your mirror, that bends and shapes your reflection To reveal secrets that you hide, to give them meaning And substance; a shaft of sunlight penetrating murky Waters, that they at last be set into place in your life.