A "Thank You" Note

A "Thank You" Note
—Wislawa Szymborska—

There is much I owe to those I do not love.

Relief in accepting they are closer to another.

Joy that I am not the wolf to their sheep.

My peace be with them
for with them I am free,
and this, love cannot give
or contrive to take away.

I do not wait for them from window to door.

Almost as patient as a sundial,
I understand what love does not understand.
I forgive what love would never have forgiven.

Between rendezvous and letter
no eternity passes,
only a few days or weeks.

My trips with them always turn out well.
Concerts are heard.
Cathedrals are toured.
Landscapes are distinct.

And when seven rivers and mountains come between us,
They are rivers and mountains found on any map.

It is thanks to them that I live in three dimensions,
In a non-lyrical, non-rhetorical space,
with a shifting, thus real, horizon.

They don't even know
how much they carry in their empty hands.

"I don't owe them anything,"
love would have said on this open topic.