There is a shiny new
kind of emptiness
whenever you depart from me
That I could have sworn
was not here
before you came.
Not a despondent melancholy
But a patient, anticipatory space
that keeps its rooms warm and lamps lit
as it waits for your return.
The mystery of us
in this cavernous place of love
astounds my memory
shocks my history
amazes all the selves I’ve ever been.
You are an unfamiliar language
For this poet; so skilled in words
of longing, of unrequited, of unfulfilled.
Where will I find the phrases of freedom
and scribe the joy division?
The symphony of my nascent heart
My soul’s instrument out of key
Somehow, you still employ a harmony
and teach me verse I never knew.
