Face To Face Poem by Paul Perkins

Face to Face - 1997

I do not know
how to do less or more
when we meet.
I do not know
how to be larger than I am
more of one thing
or another;

I do not know
how to touch you
without feeling
how I deeply I miss you;
I don't know how
to be strong,
not let you see I care,
not hold on too long;

Like icicles
on frozen birches
I dare not move...
so afraid I'll snap and
break into pieces before you;

I do not know
one thing to do
to feel once more
golden soft rays
of your smile
lost in memories of
time past;

I cannot set my mind right,
stop hoping,
stop looking
in familiar crowded streets
that feel so empty;
while I spy your image
only in my mind's eye,
through the confines of
walls without windows,
of days too many to number
till you stand before me;

While I, transparent, naked,
struggle to cover
each emotion...
in the face of all I love.