Presence

you can hum tunes with me now
and sometimes, the same music
courses through both our veins
sometimes at the same time
so i can't tell the difference
between your songs and mine

two colours speak to me now
as i fill up the cracks
in the empty winter
black for absence, frozen haze
white for presence, no rainbow
cuts through our days

and i think i was
an unanswered question
my presence in the spaces
between people, a spark
my absence unnoticed
a shadow in the dark

still this absent presence
with its long fingers of smoke
draws spectres from dreary hope
dreams from nightmares, from words
and touching two-coloured piano keys
draws songs from silence, no blackbirds