THAT FAR

We live by touch.
-Julie Suk

Recorded, their disembodied voices

sound like music sworn

to silence, but what we hear

are people we loved.

We want

to feel their hands in ours,

to draw them near, to hold

them close enough to kiss.

But loving without touch makes love

the victim of its own desires.

It leaves us seeking difficult

but possible diversions like trying

to quote a sonnet by Shakespeare

in reverse or tying a shoelace

with one hand or threading

needles in the dark.

Ridiculous?

Of course.

No matter what

we do, the dead stay always

out of touch while we keep

trying and tying and threading.

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