there is too much space for words

You sit as I do 

but across the room. 

Between us the silence

turns with the hunger

of great birds, their darkness

drops away at our feet.

Do not cry here.

There is too much space

for words, no bottom

for them to fall to.

We know the pit,

have carefully placed the stakes

with our own hands.

 

[Stephen Dobyns {1941- } 'The Place Between Us', from Concurring Beasts: poems]