When I think of her sparkling face <br />And of her body that rocked this way and that, <br />When I think of her laughter, <br />Her jubilance that filled me, <br />It’s a wonder I’m not gone mad. <br /> <br />She is away and I cannot do what I want. <br />Other faces pale when I get close. <br />She is away and I cannot breathe her in. <br /> <br />The space her leaving has created <br />I have attempted to fill <br />With bodies that numbed upon touching, <br />Among them I expected her opposite, <br />And found only forgeries. <br /> <br />Her wholeness I know to be a fiction of my making, <br />Still I cannot dismiss the longing for her; <br />It is a craving for sensation new flesh <br />Cannot wholly calm or cancel, <br />It is perhaps for more than her. <br /> <br />At night above the parks the stars are swarming. <br />The streets are thick with nostalgia; <br />I move through senseless routine and insensitive chatter <br />As if her going did not matter. <br />She is away and I cannot breathe her in. <br />I am ill simply through wanting her.<br /><br />Brian Patten<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/simple-lyric/
