Tarrytown, August 2010

We’re to be married,
in august, ten years to the day
from our first kiss.

I feel so much.
I feel nothing at all.

Head in hands,
the gentle pressure of my palms against my eyes,
a kaleidoscope appears
in the middle distance,
at its radiating center
a purple Buddha.

She speaks of her mindfulness
in everything she does.

How does it feel, she wonders?
The image before me,
like a tearing--the fabric of my soul,
scattered on the wind of her words,
our fateful kiss.

As time stops for us,
she is the thread
permeating everything i touch.

Iridescent wind
casts shadows across the water
her hand shines,
points of light
piercing the way
ahead.

Ten thousand autumns
taking each step for granted,
forever moments threaded through
season after season of heartache--
the fear and the loss,
stitched together.

Fragments of awe,
carried by the gentle wind
of her breath at my back,
pushing always forward.

The birth of a thousand lifetimes shared.
How perfect, she draws me forward;
what failings, my heart breaks
with longing:
a thousand lifetimes,
shared forevermore

Charles Imbelli August 2010