Come sit with me,
Tell me you've seen my struggle,
Show me you're proud of me,
Your empathy is what I seek,

I'm sorry you have to be here,
And that it has to be this way,
I know high expections,
Often ,from reality, leave us astray,

A few hours from your clock,
And you asking me to be more responsible,
This is all I need from you,
Even if the sun shines and the sky is blue,

I know you're looking out for me,
But I'm not looking for you,
I may be here wanting your attention,
Oh, but there is no compassion,

I've seen you making the effort,
And hopelessly trying,
Always righting my wrong,
But one day you'll too, be gone

Isn't that what always happens?
We care, we love, we break,
Isn't everything too sudden?
Scathing us for our own sake?

So why does it matter if I don't love?
Live by myself, indifferent to my pain,
For aching, our heart is never too young,
So why you say happy ones are the only saints?

I never know when its going to happen-
waking up in the middle of the night and not seeing you,
or feeling you..... next to me .......

"She fell asleep again on the sofa", I say to myself-
Quietly, I get up, walk toward the living room-
it is then I realize, again, that you had left this mortal earth-

Nine years ago.

Love never dies, does it?

copyright: richard riddle Febuary 06, 2015

There once was a lady in waiting
Who still enjoyed all the male baiting
When one was too daring
She slapped him with a herring
and chided him for not abating

at times we feel the need
to catch a moment or a feeling
in our poetry

we start to write
until the feeling has abated
the moment turned into the past

when we then read the verse
it may well be that
though our need’s been sated
the lines don’t look like they would last

i had this poem in my head

and no, it's never coming back

i have this image in my mind

and it has disappeared forever

i have this feeling

but it just won't go

i have this feeling

it doesn't leave

its a feeling like you have left,

i see you leave,

you are walking away

you walk down the stairs to the train

a siren sounds,

people pass,

a taxi honks

you are gone.

i am sick

i drank too much

i imagine dying

alone writing this poem

wondering if

someone will know

what i mean.


i know where you live,

i have your phone number

i send you emails

still i don't see you.

i call you, you answer, i ask,

can we meet any closer

than how i'm feeling right now?

J'étais fou de toi.  J'ai été

I will never forget
the more I wanted (you)
the less I was.

If a dark night is for dancing -
will you come waltz with me?

from the top of a hill
she never heard
which way to down
and never felt
a connection underneath

a missing note
a deviate step
a vapor mist
our kisses never met

a hollow cavern
a hole forever closed
inside and out

like tar water run-off from a hopeless ash basin
an unending drizzle of forever ending dribble that fizzled ... out

help me dear earth
if you really want to be mine
blacken the soil and ink the green

in deeper ferns we reappear
as lava flows to shore.