I Promise You

I was in a circle of those who

climbed from the sea of their lives

onto the shore of a day like today.

We were tired, alive, aglow, broken.

And out of a sudden silence

a young woman stood and sang

You’ve Got a Friend and when she

voiced, “You just call out my name…

and I’ll be there…” I saw you all.

No vow has meant more to me.

Yet there was the time I couldn’t

get there. And the time I was afraid

to come for some dark reason too

familiar for me to understand.

I am sorry for the wounds my

absence has caused.

We try like birds awakened by a

piercing tone of light to fly to the

sun of each other’s need. And

always wind throws us off.

I am so sorry not to be

what I promised.

But like a whale whose tears

only add to the ocean that slows

him down, I swim to you.

I swim to you.