Before I raise my voice
I will lower it to hear you

I will listen
to the undercurrent of your thoughts
your pain and the sound your tears make
when they fall
when they are left uncried

I will walk with you,  trace our steps back
to that fork in the path where good things fall
through a pocket hole and burdens
hitch a piggy back ride

I hear you
I see you
let's take a walk

I will be brave with you
let us gently extricate
dreams lost from
underneath that heavy rock

Don't be afraid
if  you get lost
I will raise my voice to find you

when you hear me
my voice will bring you back

As the train pulled away
a strikingly familiar note
filled the air
and you were part of me

a part that let
the better version of us live
and yet could keep us whole

the distance settled
in a light precipitation
drenching gray into the day

as I lost sight of the train
and walked back
three miles into a memory
to mark the last page
in our story
the page we failed

I am out of words
out of verses
nothing rhymes
with your absence

Yet time stood still
for you 
and life, well life is 
not the same
without your eyes
and the truth of all truths:
a single thought of
you will always move my
soul

But time presses time
and I try to find the word
and rhyme
the voice
of a soul moved:
I think of you
and warmth
overwhelms the silence
the word that rhymes

On the morning he left
before he took that half a turn into the street
he said to her that strength is measured
not in the unyielding clasp
but in all set free

Mindful of her fragility
he knew she drew from a deep well
her life appearing strong
yet his advise could be wrong

and yet she could not dwell
in any words he left with her;
a keepsake
a token promising
he'd count the steps he took upon return

for a promise made when one is leaving
is hard to believe
as we've all heard them before
no words ever spoken nor written
can touch trust at this level
until his return has come to fruition
and he comes back home

and so she followed his steps
as far as their sound would take her
setting him free
so their embrace could live
unbroken, eternally

A collaboration with Mark Cleavenger. Thank you for the honor Mark.