FOR AN ABSENCE

When I cannot be with you

I will send my love (so much

is allowed to human lovers)

to watch over you in the dark—

a winged small presence

who never sleeps, however long

the night. Perhaps it cannot

protect or help, I do not know,

but it watches always, and so

you will sleep within my love

within the room within the dark.

And when, restless, you wake

and see the room palely lit

by that watching, you will think,

“It’s only dawn,” and go

quiet to sleep again.