Having Touched You
Having Touched You
by Michael R. Burch
What I have lost
is not less
than what I have gained.
And for each moment passed
like the sun to the west,
another remained,
suspended in memory
like a flower in crystal
so that eternity
is but an hour, and fall
is no longer a season
but a state of mind.
I have no reason
to wait; the wind
does not pause for remembrance
or regret
because there is only fate and chance.
And so then, forget . . .
Forget we were utterly
happy a day.
That day was my lifetime.
Before that day I was empty
and the sky was grey.
You were the sunshine:
the sunshine that gave me life.
I took root and I grew.
Now the touch of death is like a terrible knife,
and yet I can bear it,
having touched you.
I wrote this poem as a teenager after watching "The Boy in the Bubble": a made-for-TV movie starring John Travolta.
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