3 FEBRUARY 2007, Page 30

Separation

Sometimes, in the night, sharing our bed I feel cage-restrained.

I cannot stretch, or scratch, or swear at moths or mosquitoes looking for the light, or me. I cannot listen to the World Service, speak out loud or hum.

And yet and yet, separated, my being yearns for you.

Not for rapturous couplings, not for passion, but for oneness.

It is my primordial need to share the beat of breath, the silent, unconscious rhythm of life that is not yet death.

Patricia Huth Ellis