The Brother

I love you but I 
had to let you go - your 
trailings and leavings you 
dragged behind - nothing 
to hold onto 
and as your light 
reached the horizon and was 
extinguished by the 
curve of your crossing, the 
darkness fell, the lane was 
quiet, hedge
rustling in a playing breeze. 
I never saw you again - 
the five minutes 
here or there, were 
not enough to
hold your smile in place and 
stamp my memory 
with your face - a voice 
down the end of the line 
is ethereal and 
meaningless, for 
deeds fall short in 
vastness, the hand cannot 
stretch topography wide 
enough to really touch -
the miles sever us 
and your filled days 
run parallel to mine but 
never meet - pared-down our 
contact - you eat 
and talk and laugh and 
do and sleep - outwith 
my ken, and all 
our childhood days 
over-run like a spool long 
done, there is no present 
place that we can share - you 
give yourself other- 
where, and my line curves 
away, different
homing tools display the destination
miles astray
but this is 
and will be.

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