WHEN IS IT?

There are many lasts of the same thing,
many goodbyes to the same people,
and they are all bittersweet—
good that they have
come, sad that they will
not come again. But each one
becomes less and less bittersweet,
and is just what it is.

We walk in the desert
and take in its vastness and
our loneliness. We can hear
the sunset, the stars
are brighter. No one will surface
until far, far on.

(4 April 2006)