Even in my looming absence
I am here, in your reaching.
I am horizon;
you will never hold me.
I will always hold you.

—Steve Garnaas-Holmes, from “Out of Reach”

•••

I hear you, looming absence,
not yet here but nearby,

so close I can feel your bear hug,
which is what makes absence

bearable. It embraces. It holds
those of us caught in longing,

as we call out, spinning
for the ones who have gone.

And, you remind me, I have
only to look to your indistinct

line, the apparent boundary
between sky and sea to

see that that there is no division,
one blending into another,

as those we consider absent
turn out to linger

on the shoulders of horizon,
every sunrise, every sunset,

even the ones we can’t see.