i
you said
you fell into a black
hole.
your vital signs
flickered & shut
down.
i saw only an abandoned
cadaver, warm but
weeping
weeping weeping weeping
like an orphaned
dream.
ii
when an infant cries
it hurts my
heart.
it has been
sobbing for a million
years.
there is a
pain that broods; a
birth wound that cannot
heal;
a nightmare of
loss, forever
grieving.
iii
the sages tell
us to surrender–– to
grasp for neither
happiness nor sadness; to
fill ourselves with
emptiness.
but Lord, i am
not ready.
iv
when my
woman’s smile is
lost to me
(even for an
instant)
my heart goes
numb.
i devolve,
stumble backwards &
fall to the
ground––
a splattering of
chemical fear––
trembling,
frightened, crumbling
elemental
earth.