This Distance Between Us

This Distance Between Us by Michael R. Burch This distance between us, this vast gulf of remembrance void of understanding, sets us apart. You are so far, lost child, weeping for consolation, so dear to my heart. Once near to my heart, though seldom to touch, now you are foreign, now you grow faint . . . like the wayward light of a vagabond star— obscure, enigmatic. Is the reveling gypsy becoming a saint? Now loneliness, a broad expanse —barren, forbidding— whispers my name. I, too, am a traveler down this dark path, unsure of the footing, cursing the rain. I, too, have felt pain, pain and the ache of passion unfulfilled, remorse, grief, and all the terrors of the night. And how very black and how bleak my despair . . . O, where are you, where are you shining tonight?