first tell the person you love
having felt the cold distance
between each glowing incense

fix a little flame above
the height where your eyes settle
on a screen, a cloud, their face,
a long familiar place,
a story of a shtetl,
or on a vanishing point

let it warm without tempting
the blindness that waits above
that begins with you telling
it to someone you anoint
first tell the someone you love

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