The Shortest Distance

How do you measure
the distance between
warm mahogany
and forget-me-not blue?

Should you count the coils
of the double helix,
calculating the length
of the missing chromosomes?

Maybe the question is not
how far
but how near?
Is it the distance that counts
or how the gap is closed?

The shortest distance, then,
can be the width of a smile,
the reach of a hug
or the length of a kiss…