Having Touched You

Having Touched You by Michael R. Burch What I have lost is not less than what I have gained. And for each moment passed like the sun to the west, another remained, suspended in memory like a flower in crystal so that eternity is but an hour, and fall is no longer a season but a state of mind. I have no reason to wait; the wind does not pause for remembrance or regret because there is only fate and chance. And so then, forget . . . Forget we were utterly happy a day. That day was my lifetime. Before that day I was empty and the sky was grey. You were the sunshine: the sunshine that gave me life. I took root and I grew. Now the touch of death is like a terrible knife, and yet I can bear it, having touched you. I wrote this poem as a teenager after watching "The Boy in the Bubble": a made-for-TV movie starring John Travolta.