In The Bud of a Rose

There is a gulf between us – you and I
A sea, so many leagues deep.
While slumbering restfully in your bed,
It is I who struggles to sleep.

I fret the day and am nocturnally troubled
About the state and future of things.
I wonder if I could possibly live
With the threat this activity brings.

We hardly compare – you and I.
I hide and you expose.
You wear your heart there on your sleeve,
I conceal mine in the bud of a rose.

You shout to the roof tops to proclaim your love
-I express devotion with mime.
I leave no impression when I walk
But your presence is felt for all time.

If you and I were inanimate things
You’d be a poem and I’d be a mist.
I would vanish, in the warmth of the day,
-You’d linger in mind like a kiss.

I remain nameless to most kind folk and foe,
But you know me as “friend”,
And my mind is grieved by this journey you take
And just how this story could end.

But the moon, it still shines there up above
Like a torch light on a stray page.
And although there is a gulf between us
We might see the same moon, at some stage.

© Strauss
18/4/06