Poem, 'Do not touch me...'

(Μὴ μοῦ ἅπτου…)

It is not you.
You were never so clear
Though I, never so dull, so spent.

It is not you
Here, where you cannot be.
The hair isn’t right, the
Clothes, the incomprehensible,
Inexcusable radiance
At this moment, of all moments.

You, you have already left,
Where leaving was not foreseen;
You have left me, lost.
It is not you—who mocks grief and takes
My best, my only consolation.

The stance is different,
The words, impossible:
So much like your words
Your voice,
That voice which cut my heart—

But it cannot be you.

Seven foes have feared you;
Only I remain, who
Know nothing but love
And would love you,
Will love you—
If it were only you.

But it cannot…
It ca—

This poem was written by Timothy Jeffries Johnson, an Orthodox poet in the United Kingdom, on 2nd August 2009. It has been published on Monachos.net for Pascha 2011 with the author's permission.