Lunchbox Poems

Memory is not enough…

I do not recollect. What I am

is alive in me because of you. I do not reinvent you

at sadly cooled-off places you have left behind.

Even your absence is filled

with your warmth and is more real

than your not-existing. Longing often meanders

into vagueness. Why should I throw myself away

when something in you may be

touching me, very lightly, like moonlight

on a window seat.

RAINER MARIA RILKE