What Have I Got To Do? Poem by Gert Strydom

What have I got to do to get the lightning
that crackles between you and me
here on paper?

Just as I try to catch
the part that bind us
my words become skew, or oblique or something.

It is as if I just cannot let it last
as if it flashes somewhere else
when I try to reach for it

as if far too quickly it strikes and perishes
never lasting long enough
and still I know
that there’s something between you and me,

something that people call love, some passion
but between us it’s much more
and something that you cannot really ward off
that crackles by itself.