the sting

the sting is in the phone calls.

or the lack thereof. the first day it doesn't ring.

not so much a parting of ways,

and turn around, and walk ahead

but a grasp is lost a memory thieved 

a shift in the soul

it's funny, how this thing works

in the opposite visceral direction

and it's too damn hard to have an absence 

to stuff, avoid, than to be.

it's in the not that lies the sting.

2003