The Space Between Hello and Goodbye

By Nancy G. Brundrett
© 2004

Each goodbye is the time until the next hello
This space inhabits my heart and soul
Thinking about words frequently exchanged
Many memorable moments like a gift shared
Seems to be an eternity alone together

In the middle of your patterned ways
I feast on our long years of dialogue
Counting your old and new touches makes me smile
It keeps me warm inside deep into the night
Waking though with golden dreams turning into rust

When I hear goodbye I retaliate with many hellos
My words echo back to me sometimes unreceived
Like watching water go down the drain
With all my other longings swiftly retreating
Like the space between hello and goodbye

Always in this silence I can hear
The sound between the ticks of the second hand
I find this a mystery being timeless
It's the emptiness that is forever present
Never absent from the depth of my being

Watching and waiting for the next hello
I can't help but have the time to worry and wonder
So, what is it like in your distant world?
Where are you now? What do you really feel?
Are your thoughts still locked up in your vault?

Falling into my bed in the small hours of the night
Wrestling hard against the current of this flowing river
Into the emptiness of the unsure future
I'm casting light, is that a no trespassing sign up ahead?
Still my heart bleeds for another hello

Are the patterns like the seasons of time?
I'm thinking out loud a lot these days
I am waiting patiently for the next hello
I anguish, will it be now or tomorrow
Or an eternity? I just don't know

Going through the motions from sunrise to sunset
The sun, moon and the stars light my path
When will compassion and forgiveness be found?
I'll be waiting for you between the space of hello and goodbye
It might be forever. Who is to tell?

Fragile like a white rose in the snow
You are laden with the chains you carry
The pain I feel is from the scars I gave others
Now the rain follows me everywhere I go
I'm praying to god to embrace me and free me from the word "goodbye"

One year and a day ago, I held your hellos close to my heart
Treasuring each word, smoothing more than you would ever know
In a lifetime, through eternity, that sound, before each ticking time piece
I am overwhelmed and frozen in
The space between hello and goodbye