He looks at her bewildered
as if to ask,
“Why are you here?”
Her look returns the same unsaid surprise:
“I came because you called me —
Called me by my ancient name,
The one I didn’t even know
but had to answer.
I came because you knew me,
And I needed, in your eyes,
to learn myself.
I came because you needed me,
And I, I needed to be needed,
just like that.”
He shakes his head. “No,
I never called you. Not like that.
Well, sure, I find you charming,
as I find many women. But no,
I don’t have time
or strength
to hold the whole of you,
to meet your offer.”
He talks like that,
but she doesn’t believe him.
How, after all, could he reach
so deep into her soul
and still not know her?
And knowing her, how could he fail
to be entranced?
Yet no is no
And so she knows
she needs to let it go.
She makes a sail
to catch and radiate her love.
She uses it
to sail around the world.
For what is once called forth
though left unclaimed
cannot go back,
And what has been once named
must fill its place,
must rise up in its light.
She’ll use her new-found grace
to crest the night.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 22, 2013