You Were Gone[1]

 

When I awoke, you were gone.

My eyes refused to believe the retched and forlorn

Grimace that lay plastered on your face;

Your hand still cupped as if mine were still in place.

Eyes still so open and afraid

But now lifeless; a painful recollection of yesterday.

A face so dry and shriveled,

With a body so delicate and bones immaculately chiseled,

You were cold as the stone beneath my feet.

 

They came and went and wrapped you in cloth

But not before HE[2] carelessly brought,

Your body down the stairs so steep;

I thought HE would’ve just let you be.

But instead, HE brought forth the disgust,

The hatred, the grim and obscene

Memories of you trembling down on your knees.

Not even in death are you ever free.

Your flimsy, vessel flapped

In arms so disgustingly unworthy.

The horror is forever etched in my memory.

 

And then, there was the room.

You were erased as swiftly as dust under a broom.

The empty bed, folded and returned,

Your few belongings were divvied up and claimed

Before the process was even engrained.

 

And then I sat on the cold wooden planks

Of the floor you stood on just yesterday.

An emptiness filled the air in such a way

That I thought I was dreaming of some sort of castaway;

An island of darkness, where the meekly loom

Over the sand in such remarkable gloom.

 

No warmth in their toes, no freckled skin,

They are cold, alone, and forever forgotten.

There is no sun, moon, or stars in the sky,

They wander aimlessly following the buzz of a fly

Just to feel some sort of belonging.

The world lives luxuriously, and so idly by

The tides of death and winds of remorse;

All so callously forsworn.