A ONCE-FAMILIAR LANDSCAPE
I miss you.
And it’s weird, missing someone you’ve never actually met.
But there’s a space where you’re not,
That used to be comfortably empty,
And I miss you.
Eighty minutes by car and a whole world away,
But you respond with cute little emojis that make my stomach flutter
Within seconds or minutes,
Like you are hanging on my next words;
The same way you must know I’m hanging on yours.
It’s frightening to think we may be better digital
Than flesh and blood and imperfections.
I don’t know.
I’m almost afraid to find out;
Afraid that neither of us will live up to one another’s expectations;
Afraid the slow dance with a hand on my hip will never happen…
… afraid that it will.
Eight years of ice are starting to thaw;
As long-buried pieces of me that I’d forgotten are suddenly exposed to the sun
The deep cracking sound is deafening.
A once-familiar landscape that shifts and shakes under my feet.
Like a map that’s been crumpled and then smoothed, it all looks slightly different;
Though the picture is technically the same,
There are new contours here that fit to the palm of your hand.
© mjc 06 August 2017
