Local poet Julia Carlson writes The Times: “As a clinical social worker, my training cautioned me to pay close attention to ‘my own stuff’ and how that can unconsciously influence the direction of therapy. When this poem happened, I wasn’t 100% sure of where it was going. Reading it now, the poem reminds me that human relationships, as well as therapeutic ones, can be one-sided, and maybe for the best!”

Julia Carlson

Counter-Transference

Of all that is impossible

You are it

Even though your eyes speak

You are impossible

Even when you do not speak

But your eyes speak

I know what you mean

But it is impossible

Even though we never touch

Will never touch

When your eyes speak

I know it might have been possible

If your eyes did not speak

I would never have thought

About you or us or everything about us

That is or might have been

You sit there watching me

I sit here watching you

We will never be one

We will always be two.

— Julia Carlson

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