A skin away ~

I slept beside you,

a small distance 

between your skin 

and mine. 

And in that gap lay

everything which attracted 

and repulsed,

all the truths and lies 

of our lives.

Strange, 

how I hold my breath,

as I say this,

as if summer's secret 

was just being revealed,

a ragged paper,

a secret note.

And I wonder -

aren't the only truths

the silences 

between our words, 

the hurt hurled 

couched inside phrases,

the bruises we bag

beneath our souls. 

And I know, 

even if I bridge this gap

with my despairing hand,

the memories of 1000 scars

will find their way to blast 

my bridge over our river Kwai.

I know the combustion

which happens when 

skin meets skin,

but as combustible 

is the tragedy of stories 

left undone, 

their unwritten words mute,

for therein lie true stories 

which write their last lines

much before the end.

Each one of us find our own pain,

even as we hurtle towards an end 

where our tragedies are the same.