YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

I know someone is dying
this moment into me,
choosing to give away
to this body his unknown,
unpredicted slices of life, as if
each moment was a further life.

Generous breaths pause
on each cell on this body,
as if they looked for
a habitat that they would find
their very own, something
that was long overdue.

I wonder if this body deserves
the gifts that arrive every moment,
without its asking, from places
that might have hardly known
what it needs, affectionate extensions.

Today I know how bodies, distanced by
unseen hands, are indeed together,
at one place, through all time,
defying differences that fate
so skillfully invents but doesn’t know
their private wishes that float on
to all time, one place.

I am here and know how friendships
about to close, are quietly renewed.