IMPASSE
	
	We stand politely smiling
		at opposite sides of a room.
	The distance has not changed
		for many months.

	Perhaps you show me something
		I did not ask to see,
	or I tell you something
		you did not ask to hear.

	I wonder who is listening
		across this distance.
	I know who you were
		but not who you have become.

	There is a shadow of a man
		I pass in the hallway.
	I wonder who is watching
		from inside this shadow.

	You have built a fortress
		from the distance & the shadow.

	The silence behind your eyes
		will never be broken again.
	I wonder who is thinking
		within this silence.

	We are not friends.
	We are not enemies.

	This is an ending
		we have created for ourselves
	with distances of inches
		& silences & shadows.

© Bob Rixon