last time

The last time
I held you -
the train was just leaving.
A pink piece
of twilight
was burned
soft as coal.
A whistle of promise -
came sweet
down the canyon -
for a moment
forever
was a hand
we could hold.

The last time
I saw you -
was just around morning.
We rolled into Beaumont
and stopped for a bite...
I remember that look -
how distant
and dreamy -
reflecting on something
we'd lost
to the light.

The last time
I kissed you -
was two o'clock Sunday...
bent over journals -
some place
never been.
A dark stretch of highway
and no place
for turning -
back to beginning
we wandered
again.

The last time
I called you -
I suffered my longing
how deep the missing -
a place
you once knew.
How dear
the memory
of roads left to travel -
ere time give me
mercy -

a last time
with you.