New

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.