Reflection

I have seen you everywhere today

in the tense quiet face of the Western man

in leather clinging to the swinging reins

as his fall and his enemies place him

beyond all surgery

in the bronze boy stretched to his toes

with every small muscle taut and 

his quick ribcage tight against his skin 

as his stretching wings create for him a new shadow

and place it far from him

in the weary Greek boy just pushed into manhood

against the whitewashed expanse  of wall

clutching his stomach through his rough robe

as though his heart had broken

and he could not place the pain

in the crouching Hercules

with lion paws dangling from his cloak 

that cushions only slightly

the weight of the wide rimmed world

that creaks above him like an anchor

in the rounded suggestion of a man

reaching in his dusty red coat

for the hand of a woman who will not  reach back

he has no eyes to see

in the hard strong man who stands firm

determined against the pushing shadow

and against the weight of the crushing crowd

behind him, his family,

he supports his soft too-round wife

with the mere touch

of his elbow against her fingertips

I have seen you everywhere today

and in everyman

You have been old and young,

full of strength and sapped by fear.

The center and the shadow.

I have seen you in the staring child

who over his mothers shoulder

reproaches the world 

for the thought of separation, of loss

and i have seen you in the neat folded hands

and covered feet that the shadow stretches across

even as the shadow has already stolen away

the light from his lighted eyes. 

I have seen you triumphant, failed, 

a familiar face and a stranger.

I have seen you everywhere today

I have not seen you for three months, twelve days, and eight hours.

What a thief love is.