The Missing Piece

      The Missing Piece

There was this missing piece in us.  Let’s not

Refer to it by any of its names,

The normal or poetic ones.  They clot

Clear thinking and they make too many claims.

Let’s only say that there was this one hole.

It didn’t matter much to you and “So

What?” you would have reckoned.  There was no soul

Involved.  The knot was I chose not to know.

You cried in bed the night before I left.

I felt, “How wonderful and sad,” but there

Was nothing to be done.  I felt bereft

Or some fancy word like that, or despair,

And guessed that you did also.  What did make

You weep?  Loss of luxury made you ache.