The Space Between

Sitting in class

I used to draw lines in between the words in my text books and

Handouts

Starting at the top of the page

Going from left to right

Or right to left

I would draw lines

Down

Jogging in and out

To move between the words

Later

I would fall in love with the …

Ellipsis

A way to draw out the space

To use it

To be used by it

In prose

Poetry

E-mails

A way of letting the words breathe

Without letting them fall apart

Although there is a time and a place

To feel as if things are falling apart

In the back of that two tone Astro

Sitting in the driveway

Loaded up

With words

In a taxi in New York

Crying in your lap

Unable to find them

Alone

In a youth hostel

Fastidiously listing everything I wanted to do with you

One line after the other

No space at all

And so much

That I barely even tried to fill any of it

Barely tried to lay claim

I didn’t know any better

I didn’t know

That there is space and

There is space between

If the devil is in the details

God is in the connections

One

Word

Feeding

Off

Of

The

Next

One word feeding off of the next

So

Now

When I write poetry

I seldom break it up into separate verses

And I seldom cry

When I think of how far away you are

For I know

That you

Will always be the word right in front of me on the line held together by the space between