Did you have to leave?

I can’t remember telling you

You had to go

Or you expressing

Any hurry

To fly out in the rain

And yet, the storm has taken you

Tonight; in wind and misery

You have been washed away

From me

As if you never were.

I have your picture in a frame

And the memory of your arms

To keep me warm

But it isn’t near the same.

Did you have to leave?

People say you

Just picked up and left

A kind of weary smile in your eyes

A hole in your heart

A sad song singing where once

The melodies of love played brightly

In the sunlit anterooms

Of the house

We called a home

Did you have to leave?

I will rack my mind forever

And wonder what it was

I could have done

To keep you here

And if the words of love

I didn’t drop upon your ears

Would, if fallen, have helped you

To lock the door

And stay

02/23/2006

Author's Note: For another one touched by his Muse

Posted on 02/23/2006
Copyright © 2025 Ken Harnisch