New Poetry (Because My Blog Thinks I’m Long Gone)

Since I haven’t posted in a long while, I thought I’d add one of my latest poems. It’s rough, but here it goes:

Today I Didn’t Miss You

But every cell in my body,

those well-worn patched

cells practiced in grief and loss, 

the easy stuff of wanting 

to hear your laugh or see you dance —

are now wedged open wide, 

hollowed out, in need of not 

nourishment, but lifeblood.

A sharp ledge, an edge

I never knew existed

had been waiting for me

to step off and fall 

from the place  

(the safe place)

that memories 

and solid ground 

end.

Now I grasp for just one 

buried nest of branch

one sliver of jutting root — 

my fingernails digging deep 

into soil, all of it turning to dust

and giving way, my face

descending against rock

tongue tasting earth 

teeth biting gravel

removing thin layer

after thin layer of me,

until finally, on the way

down,

I understand:

This is the difference

between 

missing you

and needing you.

(C) Copyright 2022. Kathy Lynn Harris.


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