the locked door

we can lie naked,
skin on skin,
body in body,
but there's still the barrier -
a point we cannot pass -
we are bound by what we are,
man and women,
separate and eternally lonely

even at the moment of climax
we clutch at each other
pressing hard together
as if to melt our difference
into one whole,
dissolving the distance
between the souls

we sob in desperation
at the vacuum within
that can never be filled
for she is she
and I am he
and not even love
brings two to one.

Colin Walker 82