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The void you left
I've tried to fill in many ways.
Tears sufficed for a while --
Brimmed over the gaping hole, in fact --
But you'd not have liked that.

A freakish workload, I also tried.
It worked: a practical salve
To heal and conceal.
But fatigue is the inevitable result,
And the heart-wounds still remain.

Memories, I have plenty.
With them I've tried to plug the gap.
But here, they work paradoxically:
They enlarge the hole
The more I fill.

I'm learning yet
To cope, to hope, to grieve,
And to learn to live with the void.
Not fill it up like a disused quarry,
But leave it like a serene valley
Where your dancing footfalls once resounded,
And where your footmarks still remain.


For Luke Barrett
July 4, 2014