This Made Me Cry and Smile at the Same Time

Just read this and had to share. This is taken from the poem "Where You Are" by Mark Doty.








2. Everywhere

I thought I’d lost you. But you said I’m imbued

in the fabric of things, the way
that wax lost from batik shapes
the pattern where the dye won’t take.
I make the space around you,

and so allow you shape. And always
you’ll feel the traces of that wax
soaked far into the weave:
the air around your gestures,

the silence after you speak.
That’s me, the slight wind between
your hand and what you’re reaching for;
chair and paper, book or cup:

that close, where I am: between
where breath ends, air starts.

Doty, Mark. "Where You Are." Sweet Machine: Poems. New York: HarperFlamingo, 1998.73.