With Lots of Words, but Nothing Said

Have you ever felt that,
Like two ships in the night,
We passed each other by
In the darkness we call silence
And have since been drifting,
Blind to the beacons of
Our souls and
Our true desires and needs?
If, indeed, like ships we are,
Then why not like shipmasters be
And steer a true course
To the lighthouse marking
Safe harbor and companionship
With each other,
As our embraces harbor us
Against the turbulence of the Real World?
It is hard, I know, to understand
All that I am and all that I say,
But it is necessary for
One such as me to say
These things to one such as yourself,
For I searched and found you
Then let you slip away like the
Silvered moon gives up the night to day.

The Silence Kills

"Sh- be still and
Listen as my tears fall."
"I want..." you say, but,
"You don’t really know what
You want. I do and
Cannot have it."
"Oh, God, you know
I could never hurt you
Deliberately."
"I know- you can’t, because
Of what I am. Please,
Let me hold you."
(Silence)

In the Silence, Silently

In the darkness they lay, entwined still, though clothed, realizing that though "nothing" has happened, "everything" has. It is a stranger love still that they share for seven years ago it had not existed and she had left, to return now. In this short time of re-knowing each other, they had fallen in love, dangerously. Tonight, though, was their last time together as "lovers," for she knew, as did he, that she loved another for all the same reasons she loved him. How she came to choose one over the other was probably, for all practical purposes, decided those many years ago before she left.

"What can I say?"

"Nothing," he replied. "Just let me hold you one last night."

She agreed, wanting nothing more than to leave him as a friend, if not a little more. He held her close and she held him, and in the silence, silently, she said goodbye.

Howard Scott
24 Sept 1987
All above revised 29 November 1987