I LIKE TO SAY YOUR NAME

I like to say
your name

when you're
not here

turn you
into sound

conjure you out of
thin air

so that you appear
before me

dressed in sound
only

memory sketching in
the rest of you

as if sound
was just an outline

and love
colours you in

adding the voice last
so I can hear you say.

"Hello you..!"
and there you are

as present
as present

can be.

I like to say
your name

when you're
not there.

Skin like alluvial soil:

I remember her vividly,
She was different than the rest.
Her skin like the alluvial soil
glistened in the sun.
Compassionate, kind
Fiery and wild,
She would look at me as if to stare into my soul. She knew I had more inside.

I remember her fondly.
Her skin the color of the earth.
She knew me more than I ever could,
A beauty, unexplained, almost tangible.

And now, she is gone and I am no longer the same.
She left me abruptly.
Pining for her every breath.