YOU SAID YOU MISS ME
Do you miss me like
A punch to the stomach?
Like an illness with no common cure.
Vomiting on a calm sea?
Do you miss me like
A cake that will not cook
Where the recipe reads right
But the ingredients repel each other?
Do you miss me like
A waking dream of need?
You are there - your arms warm around me
And dull disappointment on waking.
Do you miss me like
Children on their first day of school for the new year
Miss the freedom of home and mother
And hot scones?
Do you miss me like
Words upon a wordless page
Crying out blood
From a thousand deaths?
Do you miss me like
The loneliness of the
Lone Kauri
John Wayne against the sky?
Do you miss me like
No sugar in your tea
No honey on your bread
No sky behind the clouds?
Do you miss me like
Bees without a hive?
Statesmen without a state
Grass that will not grow?
Do you miss me like
The solitude of madness
The loneliness of Harrods
On a Saturday shopping day with no money?
Do you miss me like a
Light bulb with no electricity
An adze with no hand to wield it
A clock with no time to tell?
Do you miss me like
A roof blown off
Sawn off chair legs
Four flat tyres?
Do you miss me like
A calendar with no future
A planet with no plants
A TV studio with no actors?
Do you miss me like
Three baited hooks and no fish
White with no bait
Sand with no Pipis?
Do you miss me like
Anger with noone to hear
Joy with no laughter
Family with no children?
Perhaps you do not
But this is my loneliness.