Long distance

We muddled through love
stretching telephone lines thin
over intimate fingers
into a cat's cradle
a thousand miles long
unable to see the trueness
of an intricate pattern
hidden amid
tricks of distance
so guessing
and failing
as much as
continuing,
eventually
tangling
the pattern
and dropping
the skein.
To do this
right
I needed to see
your eyes.
It took me twenty years
to know that simple truth.