Without you here I cannot have you. <br />Minds replace absence with memories, <br />inconstant images reeling on a sepia screen. <br />And as remembrances fade <br />missing or dissipating sections are restored, <br />logical generation of what may as well be <br />Spectacled curators patching diffusing canvasses. <br /> <br />It’s hard to have someone. <br />We are so liquid, brief, <br />anchoring ourselves to passing ships. <br />Sometimes your eyes held me <br />as if trying to prepare a memory, <br />embalming me for long term storage <br />though I was not yet gone or going. <br /> <br />Know with your bones <br />that for several blooming moments <br />you were loved more than everlasting sunrise, <br />more than tickling rain or the public library. <br />You were loved more than sun freckles or bottomless sledding hills <br />more than childhood passion or creation <br />or God’s forgiveness even <br />Anything that momentarily wafted through this fanatical imagination. <br /> <br />I loved you more than the promise of a goddess, <br />you’ve taught me imperfection’s divinity. <br />Laughing compassion is the road to supple places <br />Submission to silliness is ineffable wisdom <br />soft enough to be held in the hands of God. <br /> <br />No matter how we change <br />this can never be taken from you <br />I will always have loved you more than anything <br />my language might constrict <br />or time’s erosion would neglect <br />Gifts already given can never be revoked <br /> <br />You are a pinnacle of graceful imperfection <br />Far more complete than artificial muses <br />composed with the wanderings of an idle imagination <br />half stewed disparate desires, words <br />You are woven in real <br />tiny deposits of radiance <br />often taken for granted <br /> <br />In all, an entity too combustibly living <br />to have in mind, so <br />Without you here I cannot have you<br /><br />Whit Leyenberger<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/keepsakes/
