No one can hold a heart, But what we hold in trust We do hold, even apart.

          You go from me
       In June for months on end
   To study equanimity
       Among high trees alone;
   I go out with a new boyfriend
And stay all summer in the city where
       Home mostly on my own
       I watch the sunflowers flare.

          You travel East
       To help your relatives.
   The rainy season's start, at least,
       Brings you from banishment:
   And from the hall a doorway gives
A glimpse of you, writing I don't know what,
       Through winter, with head bent
       In the lamp's yellow spot.

          To some fresh task
       Some improvising skill
   Your face is turned, of which I ask
       Nothing except the presence:
   Beneath white hair your clear eyes still
Are candid as the cat's fixed narrowing gaze
       —Its pale-blue incandescence
       In your room nowadays.

          Sociable cat:
       Without much noise or fuss
   We left the kitchen where he sat,
       And suddenly we find
   He happens still to be with us,
In this room now, though firmly faced away,
       Not to be left behind,
       Though all the night he'll stray.

          As you began
       You'll end the year with me.
   We'll hug each other while we can,
       Work or stray while we must.
   Nothing is, or will ever be,
Mine, I suppose. No one can hold a heart,
       But what we hold in trust
       We do hold, even apart.

[Thom Gunn {1929-2004}, 'In Trust' from Boss Cupid]