Helen, Not Being Able to Hear You

Helen, not being able to hear you
because not even a letter has come through the snow
of four hundred miles, and the ice of our decision

yet looking at the snow of February
I saw the laggards of our love hastening,
our cold wishes meeting and falling
in a strange journey of celebration

and then I was near you
and for an hour I played the piano
because you were listening

and O my love, you sang and I could hear you.