to speak
with absolute directness

words reach through
minds, cultures, physical objects

to the thing
i cannot name

if i could speak this way
my life's troubles would vanish

i could take your hand
feel truth love wonder

but i suspect this 
speech will always remain
in that empty location
between thought breath and madness
between sleep and wakeness
aloneness and friendship
silence and sex death and love

I look you in the eye
and wish I could howl it
but again i am mute
mute mute

in a kiss i can contain it
and the ambiguity of comprehension
really doesn't matter in the warmth
of the nanosecond

but the kiss always vanishes
and touches only one person

if i had the word i could howl it all
howl it off every mountain
and baby the world would be
love