I'm missing a star
from my sky - the warmth
that watched over my sleep,
the light I plucked from
all the rest to give to you,
to bring you back, arcing,
blazing. The night has sunk
to darkest black, and I want
it back. I want you here.

The seeing don't cherish light
until it's gone; forgive me,
I was blind. I thought I had
long ago learned what lessons
love and pain could teach.
Never before to this degree,
never this deeply, this
intensely.

When two becomes habit,
preference and comfort, one
is so much harder. Air waves
can't compete with the night sky
and your eyes. Extra space
doesn't make things less crowded,
like they say - just lonelier.

And I, who never cry, fed my pillow
salt all afternoon, in the dark,
in the silence. And where that
point of light should have been
was a hole, a lack that screamed
your absence. And I felt it,
walked right up to the edge
of nothing and looked - a reflection;
my drained face, a night with no
stars, black and bitter.

04/29/2005

Author's Note: First draft. Not a break-up, but a parting.

Posted on 04/29/2005
Copyright © 2024 Amanda J Cobb