For Jessica

I lay my plea here,
seamed in and silent
in the river between us,
trembling with an echo full.

I clasp no prayer
from a heart you never knew,
but may this go to your sky,
your road- may my small hope
light the shadows you walk.

With this, my muse
is but a wandering branch,
a leaf of sky in the stream-
it casts its wings down
to seek the sorrow in me.

Take this light of my day,
take it before it finds me
where I cannot rise;
take these feather-thin lines
and break them into flight.