Today is beautifully dappled
in warm sun. I smile, in
pure reflex, turning my head
to the right, where one of you

usually walks, waiting for you to catch
this glint of light and reflect
it back to me like the most beautiful
of mirrors I
could ever

imagine. Inadvertedly,
I have turned and graced
only a tree with my smile,
which immediately droops,
a flower, wilting,

neglected. I am selfish
about these shows of my happiness, as
only around you
are they not rare. I walk

to those who may hear
the laugh that I will pump
out of the rusty bellows

of my lungs, a layer of
paint over the browning and rotting
carcass that was my day,
white and dingy, and just a bit

off, to those who know to look
closely enough. These

are not those. I miss
your companionship as much
as I long for the girl
you all know, the one

of (un)apologetic lightness
and seething darknesses, the one
who often has no need
for melodramatic poeticness, as

around you life is not always
troublesome enough to catch
on the heartstrings, twanging
and plucking them into devastatingly
shattered, glimmering
song.