The Gaze

From far across the crowded room
And all of space and time

That haunted gaze, turned in and down
reached out and beckoned clear.

It spoke of pain and loneliness
Self doubt borne of travails

Of heart and soul abused and torn
When trust, misplaced, was shown.

It reached across that crowded room
And all of space and time

And gently wrenched a kindred soul
from sim'lar reverie.

Exquisite is the torture im-
posed by reality

There is no love without some
pain given and received.

The need, the ache, to bond and
meld - tempered hot and cruel

By knowing that to love means
risking self...and others too.

Living leaves a footprint, a mark the earth will bear
Loving scars and breaks the heart,

The signposts to a story
anxious to unfold.

Knowledge of that power is the anguish in that gaze.

Do we use it? Do we risk?
Yes. Oh yes.

I never know why.
I only know Who...