Ressemblance de Famille by Alison Swety Beninato

Let us meet down by the Seine—

I'll get there first and look for you.

In water's window, there I can

with focused eyes discern your face

(you visit from some other place)

the way that homesick people do.

I brush your wet cheek with my hand

and circles spread, your likeness fades.

But you have wakened up this land

with water drops on fingertips.

We travel an unrehearsed trip,

a watercourse with tides and waves.

And like a river ever flows

until it empties in the sea,

now I will breathe and walk and know

only what the living do.

Light fills street lamps,

day turns to night,

and I will keep you with me.