I miss those normal clichéd things
tactile darkness of your skin
smile that lights your black rimmed eyes
warmth of body curled like bear
tight around my whiteness .

Can’t have the best without the rest
grim shadows of your violent past
that load the gun of childhood fears
cultures curse of class & race
it rules the white line of divide
we hide behind .

Jukebox blares its blatant rap
& life untangles like a ball of yarn
I’m on the threshold of some dream
that’s dreaming me
sadness sweeps to runaway
down swirling gutter’s possibility .

I miss the part of you that made me whole
if only for some silent moment ,
& words can’t catch the wonder of first promise
recognition stunning like the spring’s new sun
on tight curled shoots.

Every beginning holds like hidden dust
a middle and sharp ending
love brands us with it’s searing rod
then leaves us gasping shallow air
like fish thrown clear from water .

Each time it chimes with different rhyme
shatters known illusion ,
& for every love that’s made its home
engrained my tender tissue
for all the joy that I have known
I pen the small lines of this verse

to say how much I miss you .