I She was the wilderness in me The secret solitary place Where grow the healing herbs. We had recognized each other Years ago; the bond was deep. Now since her death Two seasons ago The landscape is ghostly. No small black and gold panther Steals through the long grasses And pounces on a mouse. No one curls up on the terrace wall Gathering the day together. No round shadow sits on my sill Late at night, waiting to be let in, And then in one jump comes to lie beside me, A long pillow of purrs along my back. II Distant, passionate one, I miss you in my bones. I miss you in my heartbeat. I have mourned you for nine months. What does not leave me Is your great luminous eye Open to its golden rim, The darkness so dark, the deepness so deep there I wanted to go with you to death But in a few seconds The needle did its good work. You had gone- And in a new time I grow old without you.
