This time

This time I listened and I proposed the outing -
Nevermind that outings were outlawed -
My hand was held and the tears accepted
We strolled in sunlight,
Alone,
With our thoughts.

But staying the requisite distance from the world
Was somehow compatible with the intertwining of those fates:
The one mired in future hopes and past paths; the other unfurling into myriad forks.

We feared everything
But not each other.
And that, in this time, was more than we could have asked.

I sang, and blazed, and hid nothing
All the time listening to the ticking and watching the sun draw its unending circles.
You stood at the fire and kept me from any abyss -
No blinking in the darkness, nor temptation to bliss.
Should I have asked it of you? We stepped out together.