POEM: When You Leave

When the shape of you,
When the length and very breadth of you
No longer lopes these noisy halls –
When the light of you,
When the very heat of you has dimmed at last
When the raucous din has finally past -
Only then will the drywall cry and turn wet with tears.
Only then will the building tremble
And promise to tear the floor asunder.
Only then will Autumn’s cartoon leaves lose their majesty
As the colors struggle to evoke such wonder.

In your place, you leave behind your smile
Where I will construct an altar to the
Patron saint of kindness,
To the gentle spirit and restless soul you are,
To the warrior artist of compassion -
Wild as huckleberry, loyal, and fierce and purple.

From now and until the end of “is” -
I will carry your heart in the folds of my own -
In the marrow of my most resolute bones
to harvest every grain of love we’ve sown
And marvel that just by breathing your name
How like the silent promise I make to myself -
Wide and sky blue my heart has grown!