hope and hurt

Do you know, it’s our short hellos and long goodbyes that give me hope?
And our restraint, balanced delicately against our desire.
It’s the way you fill my nights, even from so far away,
The way you come alive.

I hope with my open hands full of questions.  Will you answer?
I want to hold your hurt.
I want to shelter your story, your pain, inside me and carry it
like I carry my own, wrapped and guarded.

And someday, this hope and hurt will be a castle
Built of certainty, shaped by quieted doubts,
Embeded on a shore somewhere along the coast
Of where our lives first intersected like two steady rivers, now joined at the sea.