by Jim Tilley
I’ve been thinking of you,
and I’ve been thinking about
graphs, those mathematical
objects composed of lines
joining one point to the next.
You’ve been showing me
points in your life connected
to other points, happenings
that, taken together, define
who you are, as if you could
possibly be defined at all—
I realize you’re so much more
than points and lines. With
my index finger, I draw a line
from A to B along your body,
knowing where that will lead—
my flesh touching your flesh,
healing each other’s wounds.
Jim Tilley has three full-length collections of poetry—“In Confidence,” “Cruising at Sixty to Seventy,” and “Lessons from Summer Camp”—and a novel, “Against the Wind,” published by Red Hen Press. His personal essay/short memoir, “The Elegant Solution,” was published as a Ploughshares Solo. Four of Tilley’s poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and several have been anthologized. He won Sycamore Review’s Wabash Prize for Poetry in 2008.