To wish for a lover
is to wish to know
that, somewhere, the self finally ends
and, at that exact place, someone else
begins a life
that has never contained you.
Off, off, into that startling certainty!
Away, away, disappear like a crumb
whose role in the completeness of the cake
never lessens at all,
no matter how tiny
the taste of sweetness becomes.
Aboard the great ship of the body
it is possible to understand
that one is surrounded by water,
not by other ships.
Though when the darkness grows
large enough to obscure
even that fact,
there is only the lighthouse
and one way back.
