After Portrait of the Artist by David Hockney
The space between two people:
one fragmented beneath water,
the other upright in the air
aware, not touching,
the bright indifferent landscape,
the gap between the mountains.
He painted what was, and wasn’t, there:
the separateness, the closeness
the loss.
The intake of breath, the pause,
the heartbeat.
Between each of us and the other
the distance.