There's a missing person
in my home and heart
It's hard to explain
the way
the lack of him
hangs over everything
occupies all the space
sucks up all the air
so I can't get a breath
A nothingness
that is everywhere
The rules of subtraction
somehow don't apply
His absence carries
so much weight
I might be crushed by it
at any moment
And how can
something that isn't there
be inescapable?
a darkness in the middle of the day
a swift and deadly current
unseen beneath the still surface
Relentlessly it tugs at me
pushes back against all attempts at progress
its invisible opposition
never letting up
It's exhausting
And what I haven't said
about this missing persons case is there's another person missing:
The silver-lining person I was
The bright-side one
who believes
everything turns out OK
If you see her,
tell her I miss her.
_____
National Poetry Month, April 2018 Poem-a-Day prompts from Writer's Digest. Today's poetry prompt was to use Case _____ as the title of your poem. "Case of the Missing Person" was one of the suggestions Writer's Digest offered for filling in the blank.