You Live On

You live on in me, odd exaltation,
Partly as burden but rare bird in hand
Whose touch is subtlest of all that’s subtle,
Always escaping clarification

You are reflective as waves in moonlight
Sometimes almost as still as a mirror
But then stirred restless by an inner breeze
Not a waking dream yet one’s near likeness

I know you as part me death deported
But also left behind, lingering me
That is lingering you, silence along
The border of song, spilling as if sound

I have no name by which to recall
A bird I try to hold feathered in words