For Kim, I Don't Know How Poem by Dennis Ryan

November 25,1999

"What am I to you? -
Silence and quiet, passion and truth"
- Lara Fabian

You are a woman; I am a man.
We are the same one; we are different ones.
Your limitations are yours; mine are mine.
Yours are mine; mine yours; this much is evident.
Evidently, we share finally only the limitlessness of death:
that limit.To be with, then without.
Yesterday, you asked me, "Is 'without' two words? "
"Only one, " I replied."Only one."
I don't know how to end this poem without you.