Breath

He remembers
he thinks again
of a night filled with sighs
though not his own
hers

her sighs have filled him
enough to remain filled
though not quite enough
to last until there are sighs again

he has heard
and is hearing a sigh
as it falls through silk toward him

through silk it falls
past silk it is caught
and in the catching is the filling
and in the catching is the remembering
and in the remembering
is the sigh again

stretching into the memory of a sigh remembered
there is silk
and there is the sweet exhalation called a sigh
and that is enough
to make a memory

there is a memory
and there is breath
and there is an empty place
where a sigh would be
and he can catch that empty place
and fill it with his own
his own empty place
his own sigh



(published in El Nopal, University of New Mexico, 1991)