My head aches from
this empty sameness
or maybe it just aches
from dregs of flu
I know my heart aches
from emptiness of you
yet to find the filler
to replace your space

This Missing You washes over me
in such varied waves and ways...
Sometimes soft and sweet, yearning, beautiful
Haunted by rich memories nearly relived

Sometimes it is passionate and pounding
strong, intense, awesome,
Unforgettable, rushing as the ocean
Breaking hard and salty on my softened pleading shores…

Then there are the times, like tonight,
when The Missing presses in harsh & steady,
bearing down with a heavy weight,
a frigid fear of loss.
This Missing nearly suffocates my heart
slipping through each crevasse...
So lonely here and now without you

Return me to that sweetest passion.
Miss me, too...
with promises & hope

The past seeping into the present
Flared, exploded
Ashes falling
Molten memories hardening
Reddish-brown volcanic hollow stone
Floating in mountains of
that which will not be
Grey

Two days past, I entered a different world
a world where I am liked, cared for…loved?
a world of warmth—naked, comfortable, warmth.
This soothing world, however,
is missing closeness, touch…
The shared hug must go unfelt,
the kiss of passion, untasted
the feverish chemistry, unfulfilled.
You found me; I found you.
I love you…
Yet, I miss you.
Come! step with me into that world
where we are physically together–
our Alternate Reality.

It was here, last December,
I thought you’d come around
Now we are back to treading
That same silent deserted ground
What the ****?!
Are you this warm/cold cycle
For everyone you call a friend?
Or save it just for me--a girl
who thought you’d care until the end?

You said deletes were “needy”,
of analysis you’re weary;
Please! return for explanation,
or your behavior is just ******.

If I could put my heart back in my chest
maybe I’d not care about this mess
but it’s locked in your hands
crushed there as away you dash.

Am I not worthy the respect
of last words before you fly?
Was your wish for friendship
a soon regretted lie?

Please forgive me
I’ve been selfish but understand now:
You have more pressing worries than concerns of the heart;
More demanding business than that of this love.
Such distractions as passions are too much a burden.
I wish you well;
I wish you peace of heart and mind.

Art is when the universe
sings the language of the soul
recreating for a moment
the eternity of birth & fire
the intensity of creation & ash
vapors of nothing
forming, transforming
both growing and dying
becoming melded & moulded into
singular beauty & horror
beyond mere word or thought
where feelings surpass logic
making perfect sense
of all & nothing

Art is the soul
living into the beyond
catching a spark of whatever heaven
may be
& so we burn
artistry in the in-betweens

This moment in time is missing color...
It’s missing you.
In moments past, all was right, perfect.
Now, time is off-kilter.
These hollow moments are widening,
growing, expanding--
the famished are eating the fat
leaving large empty holes
black swollen craters
gaping grey moments in time
Askew missing you. . .

Cold rain-showers flood the winters here.
I’ve felt bubbling cool waterfalls
touch the senses like
ruby red ***** shots shared.
Cool waterfalls, winter rain showers, sensual shots
all remind…
like
the warm shower just now—long, sensual
Pleasure
I find
Myself
finally at peace with the water
(when fibers grip as muscles pulse
and water falls)
a heart throb? or break? so close . . .
both leave me gasping for life-giving breath
This water reminds…
If only to find
another guilty shot shared with you.
rather I’m
missing peace?
Am I pretending?
Where is life without a heart?
(pulsing muscle fibers of life)
where is my heart?
where is the missing piece?
Am I Really at peace with the water?
I am more now, at least,
than I was at 23

You should know
My first choice would be
To send you directly
You & YOU ALONE
If I’m an attention *****
It’s only for you
Yes, I desire your attention
Solely yours
If only you would let me love you

I will be there for you
When you are too tired
To be
Let me hold you
until you are ready
to Resume

Just hold me  
Wipe away my tears  
Promise me  
Someday  
Because I miss you  

I think I hear  
Why  
But it doesn’t stop  
Me crying  
Or wishing  
Because I miss you
  
Do you know what I miss the most?
Friendship
I miss being friends.

Fall scents, squirrels dash,
children chatter & laugh let out from school,
wind rushing fast, cement path
rattles, speeding by...

happy memory, moments shared
a continent apart

different paths, different parks, different worlds
Merge
in those brief sections of time
two minds, two hearts
share eternal moments
through this shared experience


Remember that time
Blading in the park?

Once again, pragmatic droning of newscasters
juxtapose against the bomb Blasts
of another war Ringing around the world
in undulating ripples of potential risks.

As always, my thoughts Blast to you.

I, helpless to effect peace in the warring world,
will rather chime for you
soft ringing bells of loving wishes…
Wishful these, my caring thoughts,
could hold the power to assure that you
& all wrapped close inside your heart
would Remain safe,
that peace might e’er surround you
as a soft bed for your soul.
Through these bomb blasts
& their undulating ripples
of potential risks they would bring
I ring…
no, I Blast, my love & care to you…
Stay safe!

Your fire
Will not be dimmed
With the midnight lights
It still burns behind closed eyes
This tired night
I need you
Fire mine
Breath, voice, touch
Even just the knowledge of your presence
You are the flame
E’er flaring in my heart
So bright
I Love you, Ever

I have been thinking today
Of things I wanted to do but never did
before dad died.
These thoughts morphed to questions
of what I’d wish to do–my bucket list–
with you.
  
I would, first, want to absorb
everything you,
to hear you share thoughts closest to your heart—passions, interests, people.
I would know your dreams,
your struggles, peeves and pleasures…
to hear you reminisce of life experiences…
I wish so much to hear.
Yes, first on my bucket list with you–conversation.
  
Next, we might enjoy together
outdoor experiences in nature.
Whatever adventures are accessible
I’d wish to share with you.
Exploring trails, seeing various animals
(just know that monkeys love to bite me!)
Expressing our awe in each wonder,
Drifting on the ocean waves…
And more, so much more!
  
I miss so much and ever would desire more
to explore the Chemistry of us…
I would try to more carefully capture
every single moment, each sensation,
Preserving in my mind’s museum
knowing you
Never would I have a single memory slip away or fade or blur.
  
My bucket list is not a list really…
It’s a lifetime
forever diving deeper into you.
It’s a bucket-full of moments lived together
It’s two lives conjoined overflowing with love
eternal

I considered another
Something only you
A hidden clue—connector of hearts
Our secret

I picture you as A hawk n me a phoenix
(I do like a bit of worddplay)
I imagyne majestic raptors
Soared the vast blue ether of your hometown...
& I remember as a child
searching Southern skkies for a red-tailed hawk...
+
I alwayz loved this symbol of you
before we even met

I can’t decide where your bird might reside:
maybe as a guardian perched atop a shoulder?
I would like to see it often
not have it hidden as so much else must be...
Should it rest a reminder on my wrist
of how my pulse beats to rhythms of your memory?

As a symbol, I prefer an abstract drawing...
Perhaps a single line?
or geometric design
reminiscent of Cathedral glass?
(Metaphor of our lives)
Should I incorporate the ampersand?my constellation?
The hawk could be a water-brush design
Unfinished?

...possibilities

I wonder
what you might suggest
as an image of your memory
Buried ‘neath my skin

There was a summer…mmm, a handful of days,
then one northeastern evening…
(sorry, our history becomes a bit of a haze…
were all those memories misleading?)
I wanted to borrow & hold & treasure
through several handfuls of always forever
but the past told me, “Best leave it be”
So here I am ruminating
Messing about with a handful of words instead
(of the simplest primitive kind sometimes)
maybe it all was just in my head
memories of a love imagined
connection ne’er before fathomed
echoes of soul-deep passion…
Could it have been a mere passing?

did I mention how I dread
bearing through seasons ahead
the empty spaces still?
I’d wished for a caring hand
and one to watch birds at the windowsill
pecking the moments to fill
Greying days with smiles and silences—Peaceful
now I’m not sure who would sit with me…
’cause no-one fits that wish you see
it’s quite a unique place
this heart-hole empty space
that the past of you once graced…
now it’s just called “The Missing”
christened with a handful of wishing
painted over with a handful of words
I’ll bring flowers tomorrow

Did it again
repeated my sin
Let those feelings take the wheel
Expectations so unreal
Thunderstorm that stole the sun
****** up wishes come undone
Days wrapped up in a blurring daze
**** is scattered, lost, ablaze
…
As havoc’s ashes settle
passion is lost, no color
life has turned lack-luster
the fire has gone
just dullness on & on
Despair, an eternity
of empty
Wrong

This one is different
Deeper, harder, more intensely lost
Ended, final, hopeless
What do I know?
Nothing
Just floating in space
I could end here
Gazing out into this fantastical void
Still I look to see the mirage of you
Hope is a wonderfully nice feeling
Too often false
It was nice to fake it while it lasted
But all good things, like silly hopes,
Must end
So goodbye, my beloved dream
I’ll miss pretending You were real

His lumbering grey aura
Cloud—thick, dark & heavy—
Crushing joy, rewriting smiles,
stifling laughter in its wake
overtook my peace…
I would know, again I seek,
How to make this seething sinkhole cease?

When I see a rainbow,
He brings the storm.

Home should not Suffocate
I need escape
from this Clouded asphyxiating place
guarded by his disapproving face.

I will deeply miss
these spaces where your mists reside
yet I cannot abide the pain
that rattles my brain when you hide
and anyway,
that room has said “goodbye”
so must I (with mournful sigh)
still, I WILL so deeply miss
these spaces where your mists reside

I’ve been writing again, My Love
Inspired by want of you, My Muse
You, Only you, I crave because
This perfectly creamy plain vanilla life
lacking even specks…no tiny black dots of flavor,
it’s sweet and easy yet missing vibrancy
missing Something that I NEED
missing the hues of you.

This prettily-patched up heart of mine
(I’m sorry I hurt yours, too)
cries for brilliant flights of color,
Bursts of Flavor…
It cries for you, for you alone.
I’ve never felt a passion like yours,
never experienced a more thrilling ride
than when your love flowed inside..

Tell me, have you forever locked the gates?
Are your colors never more for me to taste?
Yes, you have told me so;
your answer, a forever “no”
Our love no more to be interlaced
For your shades vibrant, my hope was misplaced.

Frosty greetings on the green outside my door
Icy tracings left by frozen spectres of the night
Mirroring the lonely lines inside my mind
Where chilly ghosts of you remind my reaching arms
That as the summer brown-eyed Susans you have wilted
Gone, those sunny petals of your wistful smile
Left alone the dotted memories of a love forever chained
Yet, I will don my winter coverings
Crunch my searching feet through browning leaves
and frostbitten grassy dreams
Ever seeking through the changing seasons
For your hidden love—somewhere, somehow it beats
A muffled song of your desire persisting
Memories hibernating, not forgotten, our forever passion
Cryopreserved this autumn morning
Awaiting an awakening
of your love

🔥
I burn wild & strong
Blaze bright & long
Do me wrong
I flame on
Fire I bleed
Feed my need
From this seed
Pyrophytic breed
sip honeysuckle sweet
from hardened ****…
Would he defeat
This flaming heat?
On repeat
Lies, deceit
Inferno retreat
Into my heat
Ember glow
Ashes know
Eventually I go
Cold as snow
yet, buried below
I grow, I grow
My own hero
lava flow, flow, so…
burst Fireworks glitz
amidst sparks emits
reborn Phoenix
Flame’s remix
the Cycle of Fire
🐦‍🔥

There's a bakery at the end of this dead-end street
It has lots of pastries with nothing to eat
I'm hungry so I hold your hand from across the miles
In your distant touch I feel a peace and start to smile
(a missing piece, more missed than missing now)
Let’s turn this dead-end to a through-street somehow
Even pouring concrete is romantic I’ve found
when done together with you…

Decades passed, in review:
I was happy on that journey, now sorry it’s through.
I miss being best friends with you.

I express worry over states’ rights
concern for ICE & military overreach…

He’s angry there were people torching cars.

I care about the people ripped from home & family,
deterioration of due process…

He argues a test rocket exploding
had been misrepresented.

(I don’t really even care)

Fear dismissed turned to argument…

Maybe the moral of this story is:
I should find companionship with people
who value people first.
Human lives & their concerns,
Needs & basic rights
matter most to me.

My care won’t be dismissed…
but he might

Sometimes it feels as though
Each time we have a serious talk
I like him even less
(and often miss you more)
true again tonight
needing empathy
Is yours now distant too?

Yes
Don’t we all just want to feel
****
Smart
Attractive
Desirable
& mostly LOVED…
Don’t we all want to know
We’re valued
Admired
Appreciated &
Mostly LOVED

don’t we all just need to know
We matter?

I matter…I am ****…I am important…I am LOVED!
You matter! You are ****.  You are important! You are LOVED!
So don’t
Fade away
We MATTER
Always…
We all need to know
We matter to someone…
You are everything to me

You were the rhyme
i thought i could write back to life
Until i learned
the Reader had long since died

“Rest in Peace, Poem Beloved”
as fresh flowers i lay
on an overgrown grave

beyond midnight
restless
Whiskey floods the veins
Unshed tears over ashes,
these remains
Mourn the dead
Mourn the gone
Mourn the heart
from strong to wrong
Mourn the squandered past
the hollow aimless now
Frozen memory of that final last Farewell
Ponder empty broken words
Promises unkept
Pierced with sword
of hopes inept
Future nameless, fading figure
Sink as restless sleep takes over
Failed the fight
Dead tonight
Hope perhaps with morning light.

It’s been a while
since I saw your smile
seeming to approve
as I pretended it was you
inside

I miss that pleasure, gone now
since those brief clarifying words

your once hungry eyes
now whisper hinted cries
from dejection’s pit
satisfaction morphed to darkness
famished shadows have replaced
passionate sparkles in your gaze

I still, just now, found pleasure
finalized desires for you
(as always)
Sad, though, that your face
can no longer grace
those moaning moments

Under your image
I would shower tears instead

Yes, I miss the pleasure of your visage
In new ways now.
I miss believing that your lips
might part for mine
Someday

When I die
Let me be Queen for a day
Let me prepare for death as for a wedding
I don’t want to go Fading
& losing Life inch by inch along the day
until friends & family say
“Her mind is gone
visiting other worlds
mostly of miseries”
I don’t want to cry out in the night Scared
and scaring those
who in sleepless misery bathe my rice-paper skin out of love or duty
Let me not go a Burden
or burdened by pain, insanity, dementia
Let me say good-bye
Lucid and happy
A final farewell party
Before a final sleep of peace

I’ll not touch you
If You don’t want me to
From your words & acts I’ll take my cue
But if you flip my switch & with your okay
I’ll make your mind go numb as you sway
To my hypnotic grind when I have my way
Caressing, confessing
secret hungers that crawl beneath my skin
The need to feel you plunge within
I’m years’ deep now, excitable
Sensations beyond all you imagine
Urging me to dance that dance with your permission
But ONLY if you flip my switch
If not, have no fear
Just friends, then, here

I had hoped
you would love me
Forever
Does forever really exist?
Does love really exist?
Do YOU really exist?
I love you forever
So I think
The answer
Is, “YES”

there’s no grey in black & white
until the bleeding starts
then, sometimes
there’s even color

I’m sorry for not hearing
When life was stressful
When your loved ones were hurting
Or when one had hurt you.

I’m sorry for worrying that what you might
or might not choose to do could affect me
more than considering the pain you suffered

I’m sorry for being impatient.
I’m sorry for being needy.

I’m sorry for relating stories--
knives that sliced your heart

I’m sorry for making it all about me.

I’m sorry for not being there
when you looked for a friend;
& for being there too loudly
as I searched for a listening caring ear.

I’m sorry I lack the skill
You apparently acquired through the years
of sealing the past in a photo book
forgotten on a shelf.

I’m sorry for wanting to roll back the tape
then sit wrapped up on the couch with you.

I’m sorry I still haven’t erased your life
from the plethora of "Someday" snapshots.
I’m sorry for wanting a redo
of all those times in the past when
I wasn’t a very good friend.

I know you are different...
but so am I.
I am so very very sorry for all those ways
I hurt you.
I’m trying to grow into a better me.
I just wish we could meet each other
as Who we each are today
I do believe that if we did
we would only be better Friends.