As Alpha Centauri from the Earth

A poem on distance

Photo by Taylor Leopold on Unsplash

You are distant from me
as Alpha Centauri from the Earth.

We met
at Ta Matete
while my
inner beauty
was nurtured
by Chopin’s
B major
nocturne
and your
outer beauty
was swinging,
merry and agitated,
with Gershwin’s
F piano concert.

Rilke and Gauguin.
The poetry and the flesh.
The beauty and the beast (a real one. No spell allowed).

Our brief
journey at
the market,
between spice and ancient flavours,
did not garble
our distance.

You keep existing.
Me, thriving.