I forgot how empty you feel.
how incomplete.
how utterly alone and misplaced.
how everything comes back in a flash
and before you can reach for your lines
you've been swallowed in compressing darkness;
breathing lung-fulls of tar and tearing at old wounds.
the scents make your hands tremble,
the buildings, your legs weaken.
the flash of red hair and familiar curving nose
plucking at your mind with razor'd fishhooks.
oh misery, oh woeful rains,
to think I'd almost let you alone.

Louder now than ever
I hear that twinging song,
see the crimson scriptures
writ of iron-tipped scrawl;
thinking not about the pain
but seeking some control.

as one admires a waning moon's final phosphorescence,
the brightest burn before its departure,
so was I too, late,
chancing only a glimpse of your blinding luminance
as you passed us by, unto your next life phase.

how I wish I could have seen the whole magnificent show;
and to not have only chanced a friendship
my first, your final, semester.

the scent of woman broke about me as
I entered slow the small shared dorm,
his mattress lay stripped bare and I did form
the reason he had asked that I delay.
his anxious questions sought to fill silence,
an empty space that she had left behind.
In truth I would not say I was unkind,
but how I tried to torture roommate mine.
I was not bothered he had used our space,
I too in past had indulged love's embrace;
but this only happens once in a while
and how his discomfort could make me smile.

as amongst these stones
     on mossy tread
I wander rounds
     throughout my head,
I whisper soft,
     salutatory,
the names of carved
     and aged glory,
in hopes one day
     far down the line
someone may
     treat me in kind.

Welcome to Platform 6'0, northbound track.
Please, make yourself comfortable,
take advantage of every amenity;
I hope that I can to make your time here perfect.
Your exit will wait for you.
I would offer you to stay, if you wanted,
but no one ever does.
This is, I am, after all, only a waypoint.
However, if I may ask,
when you are ready to leave,
won't you please let me know?
It's horrid to hunt for someone
who is no longer here.
Tormenting, really.
But! Here now,
let me help you with this baggage,
this load you bear.
I am here for you.
No, I don't expect any compensation;
I only hope that, when you leave,
you leave with a lighter heart
and eased mind.
That said,
what would you like of me in our time together?