POETRY: For M. In October by Thomas Merton

If you and I could meet up there
In that cool cloud
Like two sun
Beams or birds
Going straight to South America
Or distracted spirits
Flying together innocent
In midair

Or if we could be
Together like two barges in a string
Or tight wandering rafts
Heading downriver to St Louis or New Orleans

If we could come together like two parts
Of one love song
Two chords going hand in hand
A perfect arrangement
And be two parts of the same secret
(Oh if we could recover
And tell again
Our midsummer secret!)

If you and I could even start again as strangers
Here in this forsaken field
Where crickets rise up
Around my feet like spray
Out of a green ocean…
But I am alone,
Alone walking up and down
Leaning on the silly wind
And talking out loud like a madman
“If only you and I
Were possible”

Never mind:
Tonight the moon is full
And (you over buildings
(I over trees)
We will watch it rise together.