Between

the suspended lull between the words

the unhyphened space between the pictures

between the necessary blinking

the hiatus after the shutter closes

the driving force behind the unmovement

charged impetus into immobility

this is where we belong

careful anecdotalists chartering the mindscape

us photographers, writers, painters

this fixed moment of hesitation

the story untold, untellable

the halt between the gun shot and death

unfalling body

unwinding catastrophe

the pause between this breath and the next

the brush in both the hand's and gravity's grasp

the undocumented travel

perhaps undocumentable

the quest for the self

between the lub and the dub

and then

the soldier coming home from two years at the front

the father returning to his abandoned son after two decades

the hermit descending into the valley for her yearly supplies

past lovers running into one another

finding a yearbook thirty years later

you can't bridge this gap

it is too wide to be measured

too deep to be filled

even though you know

what must have happened

the story is between the layers

it was meant to be lost

time doesn't increase the magnitude of the loss

time contracts, and so do we

memories are snapshots in-between snapshots

conflated time in the hands of serendipity

meant to be lost