4am, New Year’s Day

I’ve finally caught you up in this bright New Year
And in the 4am silence, I can hear your breathing.

You are half a world away
In a glorious Eastern city I have never seen
But still, as always,
Your shadow is with me,
Stretched out on this grubby couch.

Unable to sleep, I wrestle for words
To pin your essence to this time and place.
In another life, another world,
You were, are and will be mine
As I was, am and will be yours
And we have grown our lives together.

I must have somehow lived part of that life;
How else could I miss it so much?

But in this time, in this place,
You are there and I am here
And that is all we will ever have.

Learning to make that enough isn’t easy
But I promise I’ll try, for both our sanity’s sakes.